


The Marauders Kiss

by sweetprofanities



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: And I want some damn happiness for my sweet marauder babies, Because I can, Canon Compliant, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Funny, Slow Romance, Teen Romance, Until chapter 77
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-04-20 00:12:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 79
Words: 321,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14248863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetprofanities/pseuds/sweetprofanities
Summary: Sirius Black was not the school player. Remus Lupin was more than a polite mute. Peter Pettigrew gave them all a run for their money when butterbeers were involved. And James Potter was not... well no, James Potter did live and breathe Lily Evans. That much will always be true. As well as the foursome being the most troublesome boys Hogwarts had ever seen. Now imagine being the prefect that had to trail along behind them.(Story being continued on from where it left off at HPFF)





	1. First impressions

Your eleventh birthday isn’t the most spectacular of birthdays. You hit double digits the previous year. You haven’t even progressed to pre-teen, let alone actual full-blown I-hate-my-parents, no-one-understands-me, teenager yet. It’s one of those nothing years. Like nineteen, twenty-two and everything after thirty. Nothing particularly special. Well… for muggles that is. 

 

‘Stop pushing me, mum!’ Aaliyah Adams snapped moodily at her mother. She happened to be the apple of her father’s eye and the only grandchild on her paternal grandparents had. 

 

‘Don’t you get snippy with me, hurry up and get through the door miss. Do you want to be late for your first day of school?’ Her mother snapped back. Don’t take this exchange as Kanika Adams, little Aaliyah’s mother, not thinking the world of her tiny daughter. She did. But the two of them were so strikingly similar, that even at ten years of age, Aaliyah and her mother tended to butt heads. 

 

‘Aren’t you supposed to love me?’ Aaliyah bit back coolly as her mum firmly pressed her hands against her daughter’s lower back, edging her through the doorway. Aaliyah just dramatically flopped backwards onto her mother at her attempts to move her along and Kanika struggled to grab her under the arms, thanks to the massive bump growing by the day on her front.

 

‘For goodness sake, you’re more trouble than any other ten-year-old I’ve known! What did I do to deserve you?’ Kanika groaned but decided to pay her daughter back for the fake fall by itching her hands around where they were resting in Aaliyah’s armpits. Aaliyah nearly jumped three feet in the air to get away, screaming. ‘Get back here!’ Kanika laughed chasing Aaliyah as fast as her pregnant form would allow back into the house where she was retreating.

 

‘Come on Ali-bear, you can’t be late.’ Christian swooped his tiny daughter up before she could get to the staircase, from where he had just descended. ‘The train waits for no one.’ He smiled, a twinkle in his bright blue eyes as he watched Kanika envelop their daughter in his arms and begin tickling her with no relent. 

 

Once Kanika finally stopped and Aaliyah’s giggle-screams subsided, Ali let out a brief sigh and stared up at her parents. They were her best friends in the whole world, ‘so what you're saying Dad, is that if I keep this up, I won’t have to go to that hell-hole?’ She asked fluttering her lashes briefly with a cheesy smile. 

 

‘Aaliyah Adams!’ Her mother reacted instantly, her bright green eyes snapped wide open from their mirth induced slits, ‘I did not raise you to use such language.’

 

‘Well I told you those outings with Dad would do me no good.’ She countered, smiling cheekily at her father who was shaking his head urgently, eyes wide, quite truly worried.

 

‘Christian Adams! You did not use such a word in front of your ten-year-old daughter?’ Kanika rounded on him.

 

‘I would never.’ He replied, mockingly shocked. ‘Kani, I thought you'd know me better by now, I am a perfect gentleman, and such language would never leave these lips.’

 

‘He also used, bloody, fricking, and shi-‘ The young girl was cut off here when her father’s hand swung from underneath her and wrapped over her mouth while he smiled back to his wife, uncannily similar to the smile she had produced moments before.

 

‘She’s lying dear. That was Evelyn next door who taught her that tardy language I assure you.’ His wife just huffed up a bit before lurching up and back over to the threshold where a large leather trunk was waiting for them.

 

You could see the smile in Aaliyah’s eyes even though her mouth was covered as her father leant down towards her, ‘are you trying to get me killed? It’s not nice living without a father.’ He whispered and she giggled.

 

Aaliyah Lydia Adams was ten years old, but very soon to be eleven. While to muggles your eleventh year of life held no real significance, to a wizarding family such as theirs, it marked the year Aaliyah began her first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The year was 1972 and Aaliyah, who was one of the smallest ten-year-olds her parents had ever seen, wasn’t exactly keen on travelling so very far from home just to go to school. As it was, her father worked for the Ministry of Magic as an Obliviator in the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, he was rather gifted with his talents for memory charms. Thanks to this he had been offered a job on the opposite side of the world, while Kanika was pregnant with Aaliyah after an Antipodean Opaleye dragon went renegade and murdered several kangaroos in full view of a town of muggles. The ministry deemed this a problem and needed someone stationed there for good measure. This opportunity provided Christian with a hefty paycheck each month, but more importantly, a very large old house and for the soon to be parents to live in. So with a baby on the way, they couldn’t pass the offer up and moved from their small flat in London all the way to Australia.

 

However, with Christian’s family scattered around Europe and Kanika’s through the Middle East, both had attended Hogwarts and wanted their daughter receiving the same fine schooling they had. 

 

As Christian placed Aaliyah down onto her feet she tried desperately to shove her mounds of matted honey curls out of her face, she was almost the perfect mixture of her parents. As her father’s bloodlines went back through Holland and more west of England, his features were very light. Bright blue eyes, fair skin, tall and lean. Kanika, on the other hand, had most of her family coming from places much more exotic, such as Egypt and the Middle East. This meant her skin was a very rich chocolate brown, her hair consisted of tight curly black spirals that fell long down her back and her eyes, contrary to her darker features, a beautiful bright green that was shared all through her family. Aaliyah inherited those eyes, but sometimes you couldn’t quite put your finger on whether they were blue or green. Aaliyah's skin was a profit from her strange mix, she tanned exceptionally well even though her natural tone was probably a little closer to that of her fathers. She took after her father in the way of figure, as her mother certainly had a very womanly shape despite her height (just barely clearing 4 foot 11 the poor dear) but then again, most ten-year-old girls usually were quite lean. The more womanly traits came later.

 

Kanika, who was now revealing an insistently large bump, was trying her best to bend down and fiddle with Aaliyah’s trunk. Christian chastised her and quickly made his way over to help. Aaliyah couldn't wait until her brand new baby sister was born. She really didn’t want to go away to this poppycock school where the climate was all different and she’d have to wear layers. She wanted to stay home with her mum and dad and her cat. But her parents were forcing her, even if Snowball was going.

 

Their home was a very grand old castle type dwelling. It had lots of quarters and hiding places and what was, really, an excessive amount of room. It was fantastic fun for a child to play all day in. Being set high on a hill it was very far out of the way of just about everything, besides the beach. This is what led to Aaliyah never interacting much with other children. Naturally, she was scared out of her mind at the thought. The only other person remotely her age that Aaliyah had regular access to was her next-door neighbour (who lived on a farm at least a fifteen-minute walk down that very large hill away) Evelyn Grey. She was two years younger than Aaliyah and Aaliyah wasn't allowed to hang around her overly often. This was mainly due to the fact that Evelyn was a muggle. Aaliyah, on the other hand, most certainly was not and her mother was furious when her father had to modify the tiny girl's memory after Aaliyah had brought her over one day to show her the new cauldron set she’d gotten for her birthday and the pepper-up potion she was brewing.

 

While Christian was an only child, meaning Aaliyah got very spoilt by her paternal grandparents, Kanika had three sisters, two older and one younger, and four brothers, three older and one younger, that all lived scattered between England and Egypt respectively. Aaliyah had cousins and second cousins and third cousins by the bucket load on her mum’s side but she hardly ever saw them. Kanika had informed Aaliyah a few months ago that, Misha and Nay, the only cousins Aaliyah's age that she ever had contact with, would be going to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry also. Just thinking about the trip made her antsy.

 

‘I don't want to go!’ She ended up yelling at her parents. Kanika turned her attention from the trunk as she smacked Christian away from it (being as short as she was she didn’t enjoy people offering to help her with anything) and Christian looked up as he’d almost surrendered trying to help.

 

‘Come here Ali-bear.’ Christian held his arms out and his sombre daughter walked over to him, wiping her hurryingly dampening eyes. Kanika waddled over to them and began calmly curling Aaliyah's hair around her fingers as Christian rubbed her back in a very fatherly way. The three of them stood together for a while, silent. This had been all Ali had ever really known. She adored her parents, and her mother was due to deliver within a few months. This was a dreadful time to be shipped off. What on earth could be so bloody fancy at that stupid school anyway, Aaliyah thought?

 

‘I really don’t want to go,’ she whispered again threw silent sobs, ‘what if I don’t make any friends?’

 

‘You? Not make friends? Impossible. Everyone is going to fall in love with you Ali-bear.’ Her father reassured her, pulling his tiny daughter close to his chest and swaying her slightly. Aaliyah was a very small child, she probably shouldn’t have fit so neatly into her father’s form at a day from eleven. She probably looked closer to nine as it was, but seeing how tiny her mother was, it wasn’t much of a surprise. 

 

‘Darling I know it seems scary and daunting but you have to go. And certainly not because we don’t want you here, but because Hogwarts is the best school around. We want you to grow up to be the best that you can be.’ Kanika relayed placing a hand on her own back to steady herself and ease the pain she'd now become quite accustomed to from the weight carried in her front.

 

‘But I want to stay here Mama. I want to see my sister when she's born. I don’t want to go all the way to Scotland to stay in some stupid haunted castle with a bunch of people I don’t even know.’ Aaliyah looked up from Christian's arms and down to her mum’s belly.

 

‘Ali, dear, did you think you wouldn't see the baby when it’s born?’ Kanika smiled warmly at her daughter’s frightened expression, ‘is that why you're so upset?’

 

‘Part of the reason.’ Aaliyah admitted.

 

‘Oh my gorgeous girl, we'll send word straight away to Dumbledore to send you home via floo so that you can meet-‘

 

‘Him.’ Christian interrupted with an air of cheek, in an attempt to cheer Aaliyah up.

 

‘Her!’ Aaliyah argued. Aaliyah and her father had established a war over whether the baby was going to be a boy or a girl the moment Kanika and Christian came into her room and told her she was going to be a big sister. 

 

Kanika sighed over the ‘Him.’ and ‘Her.’s being thrown about the place, ‘I’m so sorry darling, but this is what you're to be born into.’ She rubbed her stomach in a circular motion.

 

‘Him.’ Christian uttered finally under his breath, making sure to have the last word. Aaliyah couldn't help but laugh.

 

Furrowing her brows, ‘Is Dumbledore a professor at Hogwarts?’ Aaliyah enquired quizzically. 

 

‘He’s the headmaster there now Ali-bear, you’ll be seeing a lot of him I assume.’ Christian replied. Albus Dumbledore was one of the few people outside of her family members that Aaliyah knew relatively well. He was an old friend of Christian’s grandparents and visited from time to time on what Aaliyah expected was mostly Ministry business. This is why she assumed that Mister Dumbledore had worked for the Ministry. She had no idea he was running a school. It picked her mood up slightly. She very much liked Mister Dumbledore, he always had candy with him when he came around and his smile made her happy and warm.

 

‘So I still have to go?’ she pouted, although knowing she’d been fighting a lost cause from the beginning.

 

‘Yes, dear I’m afraid so.’ Kanika nodded. She may have been a tiny woman, but no one argued with her when she got her head around something. Kanika was known to have gotten positively scary when she was angry. Working as a healer most of her life had given her a certain edge in the way of getting what she wanted and she claimed authority over most. Even if deep down she was just as soft as her husband, if not softer.

 

‘But don’t worry, you'll be home for Christmas, or even before when this little tyke decides to come along.’ Christian explained standing Aaliyah up and rubbing her shoulders affectionately.

 

‘But for now, it’s time to find Snowball so we can get to the Leakey Cauldron on time sweet pea.’ Aaliyah decided to give up the battle for now and relent to her mother’s wishes, running over to the large stone staircase to try and locate her fluffy white cat and collect anything she might have forgotten.

 

*

 

‘Quick, quick! Christian, you always manage to make us late!’ Kanika chastised as she waddled through the gushes of people streaming through kings cross-station. Even with Kanika being very pregnant, Aaliyah's tiny legs still couldn't keep up with her mother’s quick strides. Christian, seeing her predicament, scooped Aaliyah up onto his shoulders and ran behind Kanika who was pushing a trolley with Aaliyah's trunk and Snowball in his cat cage, a very grumpy look on his face. Considering his breed however, he could have been quite happy for all they knew.

 

She stopped abruptly and turned to both of them. Aaliyah looked left and right to see no trains as of yet. This being her first time to the station, as she’d had no older brothers or sisters to send off, she had no clue why her mother would be suggesting her father run directly at a bloody wall.

 

‘Well... in you go!’ Her mother ordered as Christian lifted Aaliyah off his shoulders and placed her in front of his tall body.

 

‘In where?’ She asked her bewilderment mounting by the passing second. Christian took her hand and walked over to a pillar with two signs indicating to the left was platform ten and the right was platform nine. Aaliyah squinted slightly in wonder when her father looked around briefly and stood her in front of a specific side of the pillar. 

 

‘Just lean on the wall with me Al.’ He smiled and she did as she was told.

 

‘Merlin, dad, a bit of bloody warning would be nice.’ Aaliyah stood, brushing herself off from her fall into this new concealed platform. He laughed at his baby girl’s escalating cheek as Kanika came through with the trolley.

 

‘Will you just let me take it Kani?’ Christian wastefully tried to argue with his headstrong wife, yet again, as she just swatted him away. 

 

‘No!’ She recoiled from his outreached arms, ‘just because I'm carrying your fat child doesn't mean I'm incapable of pushing a trolley Christian.’ She said steering the trolley away from Christian's grasp as he made a move to take it.

 

Aaliyah laughed now. She loved seeing her dad brought down to size by such a tiny woman. She knew it wasn’t weakness, but rather intelligence. Getting the tiny form of Kanika Adams angry would be a very, very bad idea. Very bad indeed. Christian just rolled his eyes towards Aaliyah when Kanika turned her back.

 

‘I saw that.’ She announced, walking quickly towards the scarlet steam train as she spotted a familiar face.

 

‘Only Merlin knows how.’ Christian said making sure Kanika was out of earshot and Aaliyah laughed as she retook her place atop his shoulders once more.

 

‘Lula dear how are you?’ Christian asked politely as they join Kanika who had located Aaliyah's youngest aunt. Aaliyah smiled down at her from her perch and Lula smiled back kindly. Lula was Aaliyah's favourite aunt, mainly due to the fact that she was the only one Aaliyah really saw. She and her family would come to Australia to visit once a year over the summer, which happened to be winter where Aaliyah lived. Lula looked almost exactly the same as Kanika, however just slightly taller, which Kanika despised. They were the closest out of their mass of brothers and sisters as they were born merely eleven months apart.

 

‘Hi Mishi!’ Aaliyah waved happily to her favourite cousin who was nervously clutching her mother’s arm.

 

‘Hey Lili!’ She waved up, releasing her grip as she noticed someone her own age she actually knew. Christian placed Aaliyah down and she threw Misha into the biggest hug she could manage. Misha was a little taller than Aaliyah. She was actually the right size for her age. Misha had the same dark complexion that her mother and aunty bore and the same green family eyes. Her hair was dark brown and extremely long, hanging in a straight sheet down her back. 

 

‘Well girls, it’s time to hop on the train.’ Christian smirked at the amusing sight before them. Aaliyah and Misha had broken into high-pitched giggles when Misha's brother walked over to the little group that had been formed and tripped over his trouser leg.

 

‘What's up Nay?’ Misha asked, she and Aaliyah were muffling their fits of laughter as Nay picked himself up and brushed himself off. Nay was the same height as his sister and had cropped curly black hair and dark skin. He enjoyed teasing his sister and cousin when he came on holidays so this was an opportunity of a lifetime for the young girls.

 

‘Send us a postcard from your next trip.’ Aaliyah added and now even Christian chuckled. For a ten-year-old the joke wasn’t half bad, but he quickly stopped at the glare emitted by Kanika.

 

‘Shut up squirts you'll get your own back.’ Nay bit out waving to a new friend of his a little while away.

 

‘I believe it’s you who’s getting his own back.’ Aaliyah accused him. Nay just shrugged, fixed his curls, bade his farewells to the small family gathering and left to board the train with his new friends. Although Nay was the same age as the two, being a fraternal twin with his sister Misha, somehow boys were a lot more outgoing than girls at their age, and so finding new friends seemed a much easier feat.

 

Misha and Nay were typical siblings. Nay would tease Misha and she'd cry and complain to their mother, but if anyone else would tease Misha, Nay would flare up and protect her. Aaliyah didn't, and rightly couldn't understand how it worked. If someone teased you then they didn’t like you in her opinion. You can't call someone an annoying little brat and then turn around a tell someone else off for doing it Aaliyah thought. She'd never understood that though because she'd never had any sibling rivalry. Well not as of yet anyhow. The entire concept on inter-social contact with kids her own age Aaliyah was completely indistinct to. She was much better at holding a conversation with her parents and their older friends. But adults are always quite frank with children, so Aaliyah never learned how to distinguish a person’s signs through body language or the way they reacted to you. She never had to figure out that sometimes when someone was upset and told you to 'go away', for instance, it really meant 'please stay'. 

 

‘Okay let’s get these blasted things on and find you both a compartment. Are you ready girls?’ Aunty Lula asked levitating the two trunks from their trolleys.

 

‘I just have to use the bathroom.’ Aaliyah proclaimed letting go of Misha's waist and looking around. She spotted the sign instantly. ‘I'll be right back!’

 

‘Okay dear, don’t talk to strangers.’ Kanika called out as Aaliyah walked away from them and merely nodded back her reply.

 

*

 

Aaliyah stood on her highest tiptoes to try and reach the sink and only just managed to turn the tap on after lathering her hands. She jumped up trying to see what the mirror reflected, but it was useless. All she could make out were the top of her light curls, her forehead and green eyes. 

 

She sighed, ‘I wish I were taller.’ Cursing her mother’s genes she shuffled out the swinging door. To get into the bathrooms of platform nine and three quarters, one had to enter a first swinging door then choose their pathway. Girls to your left, boys to your right and there was also a door straight ahead saying something Aaliyah couldn't read yet. She thought must have been for other creatures. After exiting the girls' bathroom with an extra sigh, retracing her steps back down the small corridor of the lavatories, she was suddenly bowled backwards when some idiot flung the swinging door open so fast Aaliyah had no idea what hit her.

 

‘You silly brat!’ she cursed with the best swears she could remember whilst rubbing her upper back.

 

‘Gee, such harsh words from such a little girl. Truly, I’m wounded.’ A boy’s voice washed over Aaliyah. She looked up to see a boy not much older than herself clutching his chest in a mock astonishment. He had midnight black hair that fell into his face quite neatly and flicked at his collar. He was a lot taller than she was and he reached out a hand to help Aaliyah up. Aaliyah looked at his face and saw his grey eyes smiling down at her.

 

‘You're joking right?’ She mused in her light voice raising her brows at his offer. ‘First you knock me over, then you call me little, then you don’t even apologize? Get out of my way.’ Aaliyah helped herself up and pushed straight passed the boy and stormed right out of the corridor. On her way out she knocked into someone in her blind fury and the figure stumbled a bit.

 

‘Whoa, watch it whirlwind.’ This new boy joked, steadying Aaliyah as his stump of a friend laughed at the comment. She looked up at the boy who saved her the humiliation of a second fall that day. He was quite the scrawny kid, but still taller than she was as he had quite long legs. His messy brown hair cropped up everywhere and he wore a pair of thin round glasses over his hazel eyes. He smiled at Aaliyah and she unwittingly apologized.

 

‘It’s nothing. Just look up when you're storming through innocent bystanders next time?’ The second, stout boy laughed again. Aaliyah looked over to him and liked that he wasn’t much taller than herself. He was large and squat and his facial features reminded Aaliyah of the mouse she'd found Snowball torturing last month, with his long pointed nose and mousy colourless hair. Her attention suddenly averted to the boy next to him. He was holding onto a sling bag that was over his shoulder and had no expression on his lips. If Kanika thought Aaliyah was skinny it was nothing compared to this boy. She would have had a heart attack, it was like he was made of nothing but skin pulled over bone. His eyes were a pretty amber hue and slightly sunken looking and his light brown hair was brushed to the side to keep off his face. He also had several very noticeable, long, thin scars on his neck and forearms.

 

‘James Potter at your service!’ the boy in glasses flung a hand forward and Aaliyah jumped back before realizing all he wanted to do was greet her.

 

‘A-Aaliyah Adams.’ She offered back, shaking it.

 

‘These strapping lads before you are none other than the great Remus Lupin, boy of intelligence beyond belief,’ he indicated to the sickly boy ‘and Peter Pettigrew-‘ the stump laughed. Aaliyah raised an eyebrow wondering how he managed to laugh at his own bloody name. Why on earth would you laugh at that?

 

‘-the boy of immense stupidity beyond all comprehension.’ A voice came from behind them. Aaliyah swung around to face her attacker once more. Her baby lips pursed and she glared at him as if he'd stolen her favourite cauldron and melted it down in front of her.

 

What a little turd. I certainly don’t want to get to know you. You don’t even know how to say sorry. Aaliyah thought filling the airwaves with her negative energy. But she couldn't glare for long because in a bustle to get onto the train people around her were knocking into any and everything they came across. Someone collided with James again and he stumbled forwards crashing into little Ali.

 

‘Oh, so sorry milady.’ James smiled at Aaliyah apologetically.

 

‘Oh, so sorry milaaaady.’ the other boy mocked and Peter snorted with laughter. ‘He’s an unforgivable klutz this on-‘ the unknown boy Aaliyah had yet to be introduced to interrupted. Everything about him made her want to punch him. He had a haughty air of superiority surrounding him that was intoxicating, not to mention the way he was teasing the nice boys she'd been talking to. Aaliyah was too young to overlook his attitude as boys will be boys as most people did for twelve-year-olds. 

 

‘You're the klutz!’ Aaliyah shouted before allowing him to finish. She turned without saying goodbye to the others and stormed off to find her parents. Aaliyah now wanted to go to this school even less. 

 

Once she located the others near-by she argued uselessly with her parents about staying home. Their reaction was shoving Aaliyah in a compartment with Misha and kissing her goodbye.


	2. Slytherin's aren't people, they're target practice

‘Move!’ Aaliyah snapped at the innocent first year blocking her path to the west-wing courtyard. He, as well as a good part of the school, was watching the commotion taking place before him.  
  
‘Sod off Snivellus, why don’t you go make love to your Arithmancy book, that’s if it would have you.’ A much older looking James Potter spat at the greasy black haired, slightly shorter figure of Severus Snape. His hateful-looking dark eyes surveyed James but seemed to decide against something at the last moment. Snape was bent over gathering his strewn books from the grass where they had no doubt been knocked to by a certain unruly duo.   
  
‘Potter! Black!’ a girl’s voice that Aaliyah recognized as Lily Evans’ cried.  
  
‘You two stupid blood traitors think you're so  _clever_. I can’t wait for you to get a taste of your own medicine.’ Snape muttered under his breath. He wasn’t the boldest of Slytherin’s, yet he seemed to be the butt of a lot of Gryffindor’s jinxes. Mainly the two before him currently.   
  
‘Well personally I can’t wait for someone to hit your nose with an engorgio charm and have it swell up to ten times the size of a normal one but- oh wait- that already happened didn’t it Snivelly?’ Sirius grinned from beside James, wands raised and ready while Snape got back to his feet.  
  
‘Sirius Black you will keep your mouth shut if you know what’s good for you.’ Ali pushed by the remaining students in her way, coming into the clearing and getting a better look at exactly what was going on. She was just in time to see Sirius’ wand shoot out a non-verbal jinx that sent Snape flying back down. Sirius’s comment had gotten the crowd in the outdoor courtyard roaring with laughter. Ali just rolled her eyes and made her way over to the form of Snape, flat on his back, and proceeded to lift him up irately by the front of his cloak.  
  
‘I’m not going to deduct points from you two because I know whatever it was  _you_ -‘ Aaliyah spat, picking up the last stray book and shoving it carelessly into the greasy haired boy's arms ‘-said to get them going would have probably have merited a retort.’ Ali’s focus was drawn over to the young woman providing James with a formidable glower. Her thick auburn hair was tied back into a high ponytail and her emerald almond shaped eyes shot him another fierce look before James decided to call it quits for now. Lily Evans was beautiful in such a natural way that Aaliyah really couldn’t blame James for trying to secure a date with her. It did seem to Ali thought that Lily just didn’t fancy the guy. It was sad really. The redhead briskly told her group of friends to go and that she’d catch up with them. Both of the Gryffindor sixth year’s, Marlene McKinnon and Mary McDonald, exchanged looks then made their way from the courtyard and presumably up to class.  
  
Four full years had passed since Aaliyah’s journey to Hogwarts. She’d found out that the boys she’d met on platform nine and three quarters, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, were all in the grade above herself. The boy’s names, of course, were all very common knowledge. The amount of trouble they got themselves into you’d have to be literally deaf and blind to miss them. She didn’t have much bad to say about the other three of the infamous group besides being slightly peeved at losing the house cup invariably thanks to their knack for mischief. Sirius Black, the fourth member of the clan, was forever stuck in Aaliyah’s mind as the boy that had knocked her down and instead of apologizing, had attempted to make a wise-crack,  _twice._ He quickly became Aaliyah’s least favourite student. It didn’t help that he seemed to gain popularity by the year simply by being a git to anyone near he and his friends for the sake of a laugh.    
  
After going through the usual motions after the Hogwarts Express; crossing the black lake, being introduced to their Game’s Keeper, Hagrid and their Transfiguration Professor, McGonagall. After making their way into the great hall that night four years ago, Aaliyah found herself sorted into Gryffindor House. It wasn’t much of a surprise. It was the same house as both her parents, they’d met at school, and not to mention going back even further. Aaliyah’s lineage on both sides was magical, going back far enough then she really cared to find out. Neither of her families were overly set on blood purity anymore unlike some of the more self-righteous ones. But back in the day they probably would have been, she wasn’t entirely sure, nor did she particularly care.  
  
Her cousin Misha had been placed in Ravenclaw, which stung Aaliyah a little as she was the only person she’d bothered to talk to on the train ride. Most of the other first years had formed their friends in that space of time. Nay was placed in Gryffindor, but he’d made friends with the four other boys that he shared a dorm with and Aaliyah wasn’t particularly loquacious towards boys at her age. The longest conversation she’d had with any of them had been with James that day as it was. She spent the start of term feast alone that year, picking at her food and looking around trying to take as much of everything in as she could. It wasn’t such a bad thing. The Hall was magnificent with its enchanted ceiling and levitating candles, not to mention the ghosts gliding by and the cheery, light atmosphere.   
  
Being an only child back then, with little to no social skills with children her own age, Aaliyah hadn’t been quite sure how to introduce herself to the girls she shared a dorm with. Instead, she decided to keep to herself. Generally, she was rather quiet, she chose to sit back in the shadows and quietly joke about her peers to herself without them knowing. People watching was one of her favourite past times. She certainly made herself laugh, and after a time, she did get used to it. In turn she rather started to like it. She sat alone in classes which only proved to make her grades astounding. She sat alone in the library to get her homework done, as the common room was usually far too loud. When she did find herself in the common room, she usually sat alone with Snowball in an out of the way chair and read books, letters from her parents or practised simple spells.   
  
Aaliyah and Misha only had a total of two classes together, but they were still good friends. Misha  _had_  actually befriended her dorm-mates though, and so had more of a social life than Ali. But they still chatted in the classes they shared and spent time together on the weekends. So Ali’s father had been wrong after all, she hadn’t enchanted her school, nor did she have friends by the bucket load. She never let this on to him, however, as she did enjoy learning, and so got used to biding them farewell at the start of term. Instead, she rather enjoyed her holidays, whereas most of the other students were strictly the opposite.   
  
Don’t think that Aaliyah was one to go unnoticed. Far from it. At school, even the quietest of the children are still known. When you return year after year, you tend to learn everyone’s name. And Aaliyah wasn’t always silent. She picked the right times to speak up, helping others out or rather, yelling at Sirius Black whenever she could. As her grades were always high, and she took extreme satisfaction in getting one of the schools most prevalent tricksters into trouble at any chance she could, the beginning of the year saw Ali awarded the title of prefect for Gryffindor house.  
  
‘Unbelievable.’ Aaliyah sighed, turning to face James and Lily, with Sirius not far off. ‘Can you two manage to keep yourselves out of trouble for more than an hour? I’m starting to wonder how you’ve made it this far without being expelled.’  
  
‘Don’t be daft Adams, I’m practically a saint. You know Snivellus started it.’ James gave the back of his hair and quick once-over with his hand and nodded like that ended the matter. He had his mature voice on again, something that only seemed to pop up when Lily was around.   
  
‘Grow up Potter, you’re far from a saint.’ Lily shook her head obviously contemplating whether or not this warranted detention. Had this been happening a mere six months ago, James probably would have received one. Severus and Lily were quite fond of each other, that is until the silly git called her a mudblood in front of practically the whole school towards the end of last year. Since then Lily, although not stooping to her admirers’ level of outwardly hating Snape, didn’t seem to come to his aid nearly as often. Snape wasn’t anyone’s favourite student, except maybe Slughorn, their potions master. And even Slughorn preferred Lily over Snivellus.  
  
‘He deserves everything he gets after last term Evans. I’m just trying to make sure he knows to stop bothering you! What with constantly following you around and trying to tell you he’s sorry for calling you… a… you-know-what.’  
  
‘For heaven’s sake Potter, don’t try and make out like five months down the track every jinx you send his way is for my benefit. As for the following me around, I’ve gotten kind of used to it lately thanks to you.’ Lily exasperated, rolling her eyes.  
  
‘Give it up Prongs, these ‘dates’ as you like to call them really aren’t working in your favour. I’m starting to think Snivelly might actually have a better chance with Evans than you.’ This remark from Sirius got the exact same reply from both James and Lily simultaneously. Only with the slight change of ‘Padfoot!’ to ‘Black!’ at the end. Sirius just cracked a grin while slumping down onto the slightly icy grass and taking in the rare spot of November sunshine. It gave his midnight black hair the most wondrously glossy look as it fell effortlessly around his face.  
  
‘Black get up, I do believe you have a class to get to.’ Aaliyah raised an eyebrow at a few nearby girls all smiling in Sirius’ direction. It was something he never seemed to notice.  
  
‘Adams, Adams, Adams. Have you learnt my timetable? Is that why you always seem to be close by when I’m getting myself into sticky situations?’ There was such a calmness to the way Sirius spoke that one would think he had not a care in the world. Nay, he seemed to be almost bored by just about everything that wasn’t threatening to get him into a large amount of trouble. Sirius Black was a thrill seeker if there ever was one, and he chose exactly the right company to keep him occupied.  
  
‘Oh yes, that’s exactly my kind of fun. Let’s follow the foulest boy at school around and just  _accidentally_  run into him every time he decides to jinx a fourth year for fun!’ Aaliyah flicked her wand muttering  _Mobilicorpus_ to get him up into a standing position and James lost his previously adopted cool demeanour at the sight and burst into laughter.  
  
‘Merlin Adams, you bruise his ego any further and he’ll be moping for days.’ James got a swift punch to the arm from Sirius at that, who was trying his best to hide the embarrassment on his face at being levitated by a fifth year. Aaliyah noticed James stand up a little straighter when he saw Lily looking at him, subduing his laughter.  
  
‘I mean it you two! To class!’ Aaliyah couldn’t for the life of her figure out why they refused to listen. She was a prefect! This wasn’t time to have a heart-warming chat! Classes were fifteen minutes off starting and she was about to be late herself at this rate. James had grabbed Sirius’s jumper and pulled him away, laughter still shaking his body slightly.   
  
Lily turned to Aaliyah with a bright smile, ‘that was brilliant Adams, Dumbledore knew what he was doing when he made you prefect this year didn’t he.’ Lily was one of the handful of Gryffindor’s that Ali spoke to, and this was mainly due to her also being a prefect. They didn’t talk much, being in separate year levels. But at prefect meetings and such, she was Ali’s first choice to sit by when she could.  
  
‘Remind me again why we didn’t give them detention?’ Ali sighed as they too made their way inside the castle walls. Lily made a joke about how lovely it felt dishing the boys out punishments just as they rounded the ground floor corner, towards the entrance hall and the grand staircase. They immediately spotted Sirius. He wasn’t far off with his wand out, jinxing a nearby drinking fountain to spray a hefty amount of water into Rabastan Lestrange’s face as Rabastan tried uselessly to stop it.  
  
‘ **Sirius Black! Detention!** ’ Aaliyah shouted, Lily by her side flicking her wand at Sirius and disarming him.  He turned to them in mock concern, a pout plastered to his lips and his grey eyes wide almost demanding sympathy. James, on the other hand, seemed to freeze completely after whipping around to stare at Aaliyah and Lily, almost as if he were a deer caught in headlights.  
  
‘Come on Adams. Slytherin’s aren’t people, they’re target practice.’ James, relaxing finally, snickered at Sirius’s comment a little too loudly. The two of them were invading each other’s personal space so profoundly you’d think they were intimate lovers. Everyone at the school was rather used to it by now though and never paid much attention to the way the boys were glued at the hip. Or sharing an armchair in the common room. Or leaning on each other in classes. And it didn’t stop at just James and Sirius, Aaliyah was currently scanning the foyer quickly in search for the two others that made up the school’s most common detention company. Remus and Peter however were out of sight.  
  
‘Honestly guys, Professor Babbling is going to give you a detention too if you don’t get a move on.’ Lily warned. She wasn’t nearly as full on as Aaliyah when it came to the school rules. But she was a far better student than the two before them.  
  
‘Adams wasn’t serious.’ Sirius nodded knowingly to James as they gathered their stuff together and made their way over to Lily to retrieve his wand.  
  
‘Seriously, Sirius. I think she  **seriously**  was seriously,  _serious_. …seriously.’ Both the boys snickered at this, which Aaliyah found odd. Why laugh when someone is quite clearly making fun of you?  
  
‘Contrary to popular belief Black, I don’t believe you are Merlin’s gift to us all. You  _will_ be attending detention for that little stunt.’ She was beginning to form a headache, something she was finding more and more common now that she had become something of an authority figure to these boys. How did McGonagall do this?  
  
‘Adams I know you want to get me alone in a classroom but there are more eloquent ways of asking, perhaps just saying ‘Sirius, I’d really love a good snog if you wouldn’t mind?’’  
  
‘D- DOUBLE DETENTION BLACK!’ Ali could literally feel her blood boiling. Her ears were getting hot and her hand flashed upwards brandishing her wand. Even Lily was holding back laughter now and James snapped Sirius away before he could dig himself a deeper hole.  
  
‘Sincerest apologies Adams!’ Was all Aaliyah heard from James as he and Sirius disappeared up the staircase with Lily hot on their trail. All Aaliyah could think of to calm herself down was that hopefully they wouldn't make it all the way to the sixth floor for Ancient Runes class in time and that all of Black’s free time for the week would be packed full with detentions. Not that it would be much of a change from usual.


	3. The topic of Remus Lupin

'Professor, you can't possibly expect me to spend that much time alone with that crotch-stain, I'll go mad.' Ali pleaded. McGonagall had just delivered the bad news that the Professors were beginning to get fed up with coming up with so many variations of punishment for notorious sixth year Gryffindor boys, and so they would be handing over as much of their detentions as would be manageable to the prefects. In particular, but not limited to, the prefect responsible for handing out said detentions.  
  
'I'm sure you can come up with something perfectly productive for Mister Black to complete for a few hours under your watchful eye Miss Adams. You  _have_  already turned in your Transfiguration essay early, and I dare say you have some spare time on your hands.' McGonagall's stern face peered over her square glasses at Aaliyah who visibly slumped further down into the collar of her robes. Sometimes, and only very rarely, she felt that McGonagall had a soft spot for the boys.   
  
'But Professor!' It was nothing short of a childish moan.  
  
'Set a suitable time with Black and tell him you have it on my authority to do so. I trust you won't misuse such power? Now if you'll excuse me, Miss Adams, I have a large pile of papers to grade and I'm sure you want my undivided attention paid to yours in particular?' Darn McGonagall, she was good. Defeated, Ali nodded her head solemnly towards her Head of House and unconsciously dragged her feet out of the classroom.  
  
Being a couple of hours from meal time, classes now over for the day, she contemplated whether or not it was worth the trip upstairs to change before dinner. Deciding last minute not to, in an attempt to avoid her dorm-mates, she turned to visit the library instead. On her way, she was stopped by Davey Gudgeon, a Hufflepuff sixth year.  
  
'A-Adams?' Davey asked after tapping Aaliyah on the shoulder to stop her. People stopping her on her way places happened more often than you'd think for someone who spent so much time on her own.  
  
'Yes?' Ali replied, blinking simply back at Davey, brows slightly furrowed. Boy's, in particular, seemed to stop her from time to time, but usually, they couldn't quite get on with whatever it was they wanted to say. Aaliyah never enjoyed it, it gave her the feeling they wanted something from her she wasn't willing to give.  
  
'U-uhm… well. You see the thing is- I was wondering- well… mostly, just…' Davey stuttered, taking turns between staring at the floor and his fidgeting hands.  
  
'Spit it out Gudgeon, I'm not in the best of moods. Do you need a prefect for something?' All Aaliyah could think about was Sirius Stupid Black. Davey was saying something about knowing his name, to which Aaliyah's thoughts turned over to;  _doesn't everyone know your name? Aren't you the idiot that was stupid enough to get everyone ban from going near the whomping willow the first year it was planted? What an absolute_ moron _. Why would anybody go near that tree on purpose?_  
  
'A-Adams?' Aaliyah snapped back out of her head at the mention of her name and all but waved Davey off.  
  
'Listen, not that that isn't all lovely, but I have to go find Captain Fancy-Face and tell him about his detention. So if you don't mind terribly Gudgeon, I'll be going now.' Aaliyah pat him on the shoulder, not overly sure how exactly to deal with people needing- whatever it was that he needed. She left him standing right where he was, wordless, as she marched off to the library. Ali had lied a little, she wasn't that intent on locating Sirius until she found it completely necessary. First she'd plan out his detention and then no doubt he and his friends would find her, in their usual 'school rules? what school rules?' manner before dinner.  
  
Tracing well-worn steps into the library and nodding politely to Madam Pince behind her desk, the librarian responded with a rare wave back. Ali found her usual table towards the far end of the library's well-maintained walls of books and threw her bag down grabbing a seat. She spent more time in the library than she did her own dormitory, and so she was rather friendly with the usually grumpy librarian. They both agreed on the topic of books being of upmost importance. Aaliyah would have gone stark raving mad if she hadn't had them to read. Besides school work, there wasn't much else for her to fill her time with.  
  
'Mind if I join you?' Aaliyah looked up at the timid smile of Remus Lupin. He looked a tad worn down, but this was to be expected with Remus. He was always getting sick, most people paid little attention to it. But he was a prefect and over the three months that Aaliyah had been appointed one, she had noticed he had gone to the hospital wing twice, and now was looking about ready for a third visit.  
  
'Not at all,' Aaliyah offered, 'NEWTS got you worried?' She enquired, wondering why he was visiting this section at all. Remus, unlike his friends, did value learning. But Aaliyah had never seen too much of him studying alone. He usually had his entourage with him and the four of them made entirely too much noise which Madam Pince was onto in no time at all.  
  
'Thought it best to get a few papers out of the way before the, um,  _Christmas cheer_  took hold and I ended up forgetting about them.' As Remus sat down Aaliyah went about her own accord and dug out a couple of textbooks for her potions essay. It wasn't due for another fortnight at least, but she was too organized for her own good. For a while the two didn't say terribly much to each other, the desk was large enough to fit six students comfortably and so the proximity didn't demand small talk. It wasn't until Ali's curiosity got the better of her.  
  
'Are you ill, Lupin? You look a little paler than you usually do.' At her question Remus's eyes abandoned his Charms text and after glancing up at Ali, looked down to his own hands. He almost seemed to be contemplating what to say, before Ali continued. 'I only ask because if it was anything menial, I could probably give you a hand with it. Madam Pomfrey fusses far too much if you ask me. You've missed at least three nights of patrol this year haven't you? Seems a little ridiculous.'  
  
Remus laughed a little at this, 'I suppose she does fuss doesn't she?' He looked as if he was recalling a perfectly funny memory at Aaliyah's words, which she found concerning.  _What's funny about being sick?_  
  
'My mum's a healer. She's taught me loads of stuff. A lot of brews, and simple charms. If you wanted to keep your hospital visits to a minimum, I'm fairly certain I could help.' This could have been seen as a very polite and kind act, which it was, but mostly Aaliyah was just thinking about the extra rounds she had to complete on the days that Remus was out of action. Not that she'd missed out on anything in particular, it probably gave her something to do. Maybe she was being a little too nosy, she thought.  
  
'Is she really? That's a very respectable career. Do you know, I'm not sure we've ever really talked before this? I don't see you around much at meals or in the common room. Do you spend a lot of your time here?' Remus had always been a perfectly nice boy. Sure, he shared his fair amount of detentions with his friends, but of the troublesome four, Remus was probably the best behaved. This didn't mean he was a perfect student by any means, but when surrounded by James Potter and Sirius Black, practically anyone else seemed rather saint-like. Aaliyah expected that was how he earned his title as prefect. As one boy and girl from each house and year had to be chosen, of the four Gryffindor boys, Remus was certainly the lesser of four evils.  
  
Aaliyah wasn't quite sure how she managed to end up experiencing something as menial as small talk, but she was surprised to find she was actually rather enjoying it with Remus. There was something different about the way he spoke to her in comparison to the boys of her own year level, among the various others. She couldn't completely understand what it was, but he seemed less threatening in a way.  
  
'Mostly. I like the quiet.' It was the best answer she could come up with to the keep the mood light.  _No one really likes me all that much_  seemed to be an overly dramatic thing to say. Ali wasn't usually one for theatrics.  
  
'Really? I prefer it in the common room. I like the loud. It distracts me from my own thoughts and makes it easier to focus on the subject matter. But, I suppose, that's a little balmy when you say it out loud. You're a lot more normal.' Remus laughed despite himself and Aaliyah awarded him a smile that reached all the way up to her eyes. 'There you go, you have a pretty smile, Adams. You should do it more often.'  
  
Aaliyah felt her cheeks warm at that comment. Remus noticed her apparent withdrawal and quickly changed the topic. 'Is that the essay on Moonstone? Did you need any help? I did the same one last year.' Aaliyah was thankful for Remus' obvious talent for reading people. He was clearly profoundly better at it than she.  
  
'Actually... I've already got it pretty much mapped out. I've read three books on its properties and most of it's just kind of sitting there, ready to be written.' Aaliyah hoped that Remus wasn't aware of just how up to date with her homework she was, 'I like learning.' She admitted, abashed.  
  
'Well then. Could we possibly see more of each other? How good are you at Charms?' They both sort of chuckled at that, but being who she was, Aaliyah definitely took Remus seriously.  
  
After finding out that the homework Professor Flitwick had set the sixth years was a detail parchment on the Aguamenti Charm, along with practising it, she got overly literal in her help. When they finally realized the time, they were both producing murky water from the ends of their wands, as quietly as possible.  
  
'Did you want to join me for dinner?' Remus asked politely as they were packing up their things. Aaliyah contemplated it for a moment. She usually ate alone, and quite quickly. But just as she considered agreeing, a thought struck her.  
  
'Unfortunately, I do believe your usual spot by the corner is frequented by one person that would make me lose my appetite, entirely.' She bit out the word entirely a lot harsher than she meant to.  
  
Remus seemed to contemplate this, 'I'm guessing the person you're referring to is Peter?'  
  
'Don't be absurd. Peter might not be the most aesthetically pleasing, but I'd prefer him over the other company you keep. At least he doesn't make a habit of jinxing every Slytherin he comes across. Do you know I have to supervise that stupid weasel's detention tomorrow night? McGonagall's even fed up!' Talking about Sirius Black always got Aaliyah a lot more worked up than she could control. Ever since first year. Sometimes she had to literally tell herself to  _breathe_  and calm herself down. When she'd composed herself and turned back to Remus, who was pulling his sling bag over his head, he was smiling bemusedly.  
  
'I heard he got caught jinxing that water fountain, I had no idea it was by you. I thought it would have been Lily. I keep forgetting you're a prefect now.' He picked up Ali's bag so she could stuff her last book back inside it and they made their way around the high, book-encrusted walls, dodging a few that were levitating themselves back into their alphabetically and genre correct shelves. Ali waved to Madam Pince who raised a brow to see her exiting with someone rather than alone.  
  
'What do you think would be a fair detention for using magic outside of class on a student?' Ali asked, remembering she did have to come up with something suitable.  
  
Remus pondered this as they made their way towards the staircase. 'How about tending to the grass of the quidditch pitch?'  
  
'It's November, Lupin. It's freezing! You forget I'm going to be there with the stupid pustule.' The thought of spending two or so hours in the company of Sirius Black  _and_  the steadily increasing cold weather was all too much.  
  
Remus then produced a kind of airy smile as he recalled something. 'Well, Marlene did blow up a chair in Transfiguration today-'  
  
'Oh brilliant! I can make him clean it up without magic.' The cogs were turning in her head immediately. Depending on how badly their sixth year peer Marlene McKinnon had gone wrong on her spell, it could mean a lot of tedious manual labour. Just  _perfect_.  
  
'For someone so off the radar, you have a pretty wicked steak don't you, Adams?' Remus looked almost worried. 'Don't you dare tell him that I helped you devise this plan! I won't hear the end of it if you do.' With that Aaliyah agreed to keep their secret, and gave a polite wave goodbye. When they stepped out onto the third-floor landing she climbed the stairs to the Gryffindor tower while Remus went straight down to dinner to join his aforementioned friends.  
  
Dinner would have been in full swing downstairs, and Aaliyah was one to prefer coming in late and avoiding the loudest parts. Or going down incredibly early and being the first to breakfast, that sort of thing. After four full years of it and steadily increasing into her fifth, she'd become rather ingenious at avoiding people. Most of all the girls she shared a dorm with. There were four others in her room, and they were all quick friends. She rarely ever spoke to any of them as they were the worst kind of girls in her opinion. Well, Anna Cox was anyway. The others seemed mostly to just follow her lead. They gossiped a lot and rarely paid attention in class, preferring to talk about boys instead.  
  
What good is talking about boys going to do you, Aaliyah thought? One was much better off using their time at school to  _learn_. As she entered her dorm she threw her things down on her bed. The first bed to the left of the door belonged to Aaliyah, which made getting in and out unnoticed easier. The one beside her belonged to Emily Claire, she was the most tolerable of the four, thankfully. Mostly due to how exceptionally stupid she was. Gullible was an understatement when it came to Emily. She was also incredibly tall for their age. The middle bed, situated at the back of the circular room belonged to Anna. She was like the female version of Sirius Black in Aaliyah's opinion, only worse. The things Anna did didn't make nearly as many people laugh. She mostly enjoyed gossiping about other students and spreading rumours. Once or twice she'd aided to a few nasty ones about Ali herself, but when Aaliyah had barely reacted to them, Anna quickly got the idea that she wasn't the most fun of torture subjects. The last two beds belonged to Bianca Roberts and Maria Anthony. Neither one was rarely seen without the other. Bianca was like a clone of Anna, as they both shared similarly pretty features. Maria was a short girl with Greek lineage that had an unhealthy obsession with divinations and all things alike.  
  
Aaliyah's dorm mates were among the groups of girls around the school that would stare at Sirius Black when he wasn't looking. And Aaliyah seriously questioned those girls' sanity. All of them. Closing the curtains around her bed after she fell in, she whipped out her wand and used a  _Locomotor_  charm to sort the books in her bag out, rearranging them to sit on her trunk. Now she would wait to hear her dorm-mates coming up the stairs when she would slip by them and down to the hall to grab a few scraps for dinner. She changed into comfortable clothes while she waited. The easiest thing to locate being a green and gold embroidered button-up, short-sleeve dress that fell midway down her thigh. Simply pulling it on and buttoning it up was far easier than pulling on a pair of her jeans and finding a shirt to match. She enjoyed dresses more anyway.  
  
By close to eight o'clock she heard footsteps coming towards their dormitory and knew it was time for her to vacate. As she snapped up her wand and placed the book she was reading face down on her bed, she slipped out the doorway and was almost in the clear.  
  
'Aaliyah!' Anna's voice sounded positively nice. Ali's name, mispronounced of course, floating out of it as if it were a normal occurrence just as Aaliyah had passed by them. This was far from normal, and her attempts at not being noticed were only thwarted by the fact that for once, Anna had been looking for her. 'I've been looking for you.'  
  
'Can't have been looking very hard then, could you, Cocky?' Aaliyah's brows were creased and she wasn't exactly sure how to process this attention. She felt her stomach complain. She hadn't eaten since lunch and she was close to famished by this point. No one is particularly loquacious when they're hungry, least of all the socially inept.  
  
Anna decided to ignore the last comment for the greater good of her situation. 'I heard you gave Sirius Black a detention.'  
  
'Did ya?' Ali's eyes were barely staying open, this was just the type of thing they would ask. Anything to gossip about. Anna was a pretty girl, surely. She had long blonde hair, straight as it came. Her brown eyes were large and her face was usually quite accentuated with makeup. She wasn't particularly thin and had a nice bone structure about her. Bianca, who was standing to her left, was practically identical in looks, besides maybe being a couple of centimetres shorter and her hair falling only to her shoulders. She probably had a little less in the way of curves.  
  
'Anna's planning to be meeting up with Sirius tomorrow night,' Maria interjected quite matter-of-factly. She was much shorter than the rest of the girls. She had hair about the same length as her 'bestest-friend-for-life' Bianca, although hers was wildly curly and a very dark brown. She wore glasses and her slightly magnified iris behind them almost blended in with her pupil. Her skin was more bronzed than the other three, it came a much closer shade to Aaliyah's own. Emily, the one of the four that Aaliyah tolerated the most, was standing towards the back of the group on the staircase, still able to see quite clearly, clearing close to six foot even at fifteen years of age. She, too, had dark brown hair, very straight, with a blunt fringe cut to sit perfectly over her eyes which were a lovely shade of blue. She was by far, in Aaliyah's opinion, the prettiest of the lot. If only she concentrated a little harder on, well, anything.  
  
'Yeah, so if you could maybe  _not_  give him detention then, that would be great.' Anna smiled in what could only be described as the laziest of smiles and kind of fluttered her eyelashes in some attempt to be endearing. Aaliyah's right eyebrow rose up towards her hairline.  
  
'Well, thanks for this little chat, ladies. I've definitely found it most informative. I  _will_  make sure that Black attends detention tomorrow night now, see you.' And with that, she was off.  
  
As she jumped happily down the stairs, she smiled at the calls behind her of certainly foul names and other such phrases. When she was younger she used to wonder why her dorm mates never tried to befriend her. But as she got older she realized how thankful she was that they didn't. They were the most annoying girls she knew. She went from wondering if she should attempt to be their friends, to not really caring. And that steadily progressed into all-out detesting them somewhere around the end of their second year when the girls started to obsess over boys. She enjoyed annoying Anna almost as much as she liked yelling at Sirius Black.


	4. Boys will be boys.

As James spoke to Remus in a hushed voice behind them, probably about something Evans related, Sirius and Peter ran along ahead of them behind two seventh year Ravenclaw girls. They'd just finished dinner and Sirius didn't care to listen into yet another session of 'why won't Evans love me?' Sirius tapped Peter on the shoulder and motioned to the girls ahead of them before grabbing some of his close to shoulder length hair with both hands, twirling it through his fingers and moving his lips in the same fashion as the girl to their front-left. Peter started snickering at Sirius's overdone re-enactment of the girls as he thrust his chest forward and waved his hips from side to side as he walked slowly in their stead.  
  
'Check this out.' Peter whispered to Sirius and pulled his wand out of his robe pocket. Sirius's eyes lit up. ' _Deprimo_.' Peter muttered flicking his wand toward the girls and a huge gust of air sent their robes flying over their heads. They began screaming and trying to correct their skirts but it was far too late. Everyone in the vicinity had caught a very long glimpse at their undergarments. Sirius was positively roaring with laughter and Peter was beside him wearing a triumphant smile, trying his best not to keel over beside his friend.  
  
Behind them James had abandon his chat and raced forward towards the boys, grabbing at Sirius and laughing at the same magnitude. His laugh didn't meet quite the bark-like tendencies of his best friend.  
  
'You boys are shameless!' The two girls screamed at the foursome as Remus joined them, a hand over his mouth, trying to disguise his muffled fits.  
  
'Five points from Gryffindor!' Came an outsider's voice as she ran over to the commotion. Sirius tried his best to compose himself as he grabbed onto James robes and pulled himself up from his doubled over position, his arm instantly hugging around James' neck in a pose the boys found to be most comfortable. Sirius and James watched as the fifth year prefect helped the girls with their robes then turned towards them, her face looking almost red with anger.  
  
'Of course it's you!' Adams shouted. Sirius grinned, not upset in the slightest to take the fall for Peter. The laughter he just caused was more than enough payment to do so. This particular prefect seemed to have it in for Sirius anyway. She'd despised him since before he could remember. Sirius watched her as she marched over to them menacingly. It was rather funny, because she was a fair amount smaller than all of them. Her curly dark blonde (or was it light brown? He could never really decide) hair was all pulled back into a long messy plait and her bright green eyes flashing with fury.  
  
'I don't know what you mean Adams? I was just standing here, the picture of innocence when that terrible gust of November chill assaulted those poor girls. You better go after old Mr. North and give him a piece of your mind. He simply can't get away with this!' He could feel James beside him laughing silently.  
  
'Shut up Black! You'd think you idiots would try a little harder when you have a prefect in your midst. You do realize we can only take points from our own houses? We want to win at least  _one_  house cup over Slytherin while you morons are still here.' Sirius probably should have resented her for the amount of trouble she caused him, but it was exactly the opposite. He admired how much spirit she had. And he really couldn't argue with the point she made. They hadn't won a house cup in as long a time as the boys had been there.  
  
'Sorry, Adams. I did mean to put a stop to it.' Remus spoke from beside them. Adams' face seemed to soften slightly when she turned to Remus, almost as if he'd defused a bomb.  
  
'It's okay, Lupin, I know it wasn't you.'  
  
 _What's all this?_  Sirius thought looking between Adams and Remus as if he'd missed the punch line of a joke. He saw Peter mouth  _sorry_  from beside Remus and waved a hand of nonchalance in return. It wasn't that first time he'd taken the fall for Peter's action, nor did he think it would be the last. The Ravenclaw girls had gone by now and James hugged Sirius' head closer to him.  
  
'What do you think is going on here?' James asked as Adams and Remus spoke between themselves for a moment and Peter came around them to join the other two. 'Do you think Moony likes her?'  
  
'Nah,' Sirius snorted. 'Adams would take the fun out of everything, probably even snogging. No point there.' He said this loud enough for the pair to hear and both Remus and Adams turned to them, Remus not looking nearly as embarrassed as Adams did.  
  
'I would not!' She defended. 'You're probably rubbish at it yourself Black. You think the sun shines out of your arse, so I'm willing to bet you don't know how to please anyone but yourself.' It was so damn easy to get a rise out of her. Sirius found it almost as fun as playing pranks on McGonagall.  
  
'Not true. I'm a fantastic kisser, aren't I prongs?' Sirius cocked his head towards James beside him.  
  
'Oh yeah! Brilliant to say the least. Makes me weak at the knees. And he taste sweet, like sugar quills.' James sighed dreamily and grabbed Sirius's hand, turning to come face to face. He puckered his lips into kissing formation while Sirius did the same. They came as close as to almost connecting when Peter burst out into loud exultant laughter and James and Sirius opened their eyes, Sirius winking over to Adams.  
  
'Never mind your bloody snogging rituals Black I have a message to deliver to you anyway.' Adams sighed rolling her eyes. 'You'll be serving detention with me tomorrow night.' She smiled at this. Sirius didn't know how to take that? Was she happy about him serving detention, or was she happy about him serving detention with  _her_? Considering their past, he leaned towards the former. For a moment he admired her skin absentmindedly as the short green dress she was in showed off a fair amount of it compared to their usual conservative school uniform. She always had a lovely tan after the holidays. Her skin was slightly darker naturally to begin with but it was almost always darker after the holidays and stayed that way for months. He started to wonder where it was she must have gone with her family, as no one living in England had skin that sun-kissed. Then he realized he'd just been admiring a girl's  _skin_  for longer than thirty seconds and visibly shook his head.  
  
'Are you even listening?!' Adams sounded like she was about ready to smack him.  
  
'No, sorry, what were you saying?' Sirius presented her with his most award-winning smile.  
  
'Transfiguration class room! Tomorrow night, six sharp.' She didn't seem swayed in the least by his smile and it was something that annoyed Sirius from time to time. He usually got what he wanted from students and faculty members alike of the opposite sex. He assumed they found him 'handsome'. It wasn't something he cared for, besides when it benefitted him. Usually getting him out of detentions and such. Sirius shrugged towards James, Peter and Remus.  
  
'As you wish Adams. I'm all yours.' He winked again and Remus grabbed the front of his robes and dragged him away from the string of curse-words coming out of Adams mouth.  
  
'She's going to strangle you one of these days mate if you're not careful.' Remus warned, correcting his friend's robes after detaching from them and leading them towards the stairs.  
  
'Maybe I might let her.' Sirius joked, waving his eyebrows suggestively and making James and Peter laugh. They all made their way up the stairs to the Gryffindor tower joking and invading each other's personal space like it was nobody's business. Once Remus offered the Fat Lady the password and she swung open they clambered in through the portrait hole and made their way over to the lounges in front of the fire.  
  
'Move it.' James announced to the two second years that had managed to scam the best seats available. They quickly vacated the area, almost falling over in their haste. Getting in the boys' way wasn't really a great idea for anyone. It used to only be those in the grades below them that coped it, but the foursome had made such a name for themselves as troublemakers these days that even the seventh years seemed to part way for them in a crowd.  
  
Sirius collapsed happily onto the longest couch. James grabbed his legs and took a seat underneath them, hugging them into his body, getting comfortable in a cross-legged position. Remus, who completely dismissed the rude interaction with the underclassmen, settled himself down peacefully in the armchair to their left and Peter lay belly down on the rug in front of the crackling fire.  
  
'So Moony, getting excited for the upcoming run this weekend?' Pete asked while using his fingers to brush his thin hair forward and straighten out any knots. Sirius watched as James' attention turned from the conversation at hand to the two second years they had banished. They had tried to make their escape up the stairs to their dorms but were stopped by none other than Lily Evans.  
  
'Oh yeah, practically bursting Wormtail. Just cannot wait until I become a raging lunatic with no control over my actions.' Sirius didn't take too much notice of Remus's unhappy reply. He usually got a little depressive and moody towards the full moon. He couldn't help it. It completely altered his temperament and the boys all  _loved_  referring to this change as his 'time of the month'. Funnily enough the origins of the joke were rather lost on Sirius until his third year at school when he had learnt exactly why it had been so funny to the other boys. Sirius didn't have sisters and his parents weren't really the sort to sit him down and teach him of the female anatomy. While Peter and Remus discussed a few things among themselves Sirius felt James tense up, hugging Sirius' legs harder into his body unknowingly as Lily came over to them looking less than pleased.  
  
'James Potter you did not just scare two twelve year olds into giving up their seats for you.' It almost sounded like she was hoping he hadn't. James was kind of frozen, eyes wide. He took on a lot of traits of his animagus form after they turned, as did both Sirius himself and Peter.  
  
'Evans they were going up to bed anyway. Isn't it their bed time now? I was just looking out for them. Pre-teens need so much sleep you see. Honestly I thought you might be coming over to thank me for being such a big brother type and looking out for the little squirts.' Sirius was trying not to laugh and both Peter and Remus had stopped their conversation and turned their attention to the redhead. James had his 'perfectly mature' voice on which Sirius enjoyed teasing him about.  
  
Sirius craned his head around James' body to get Remus in view and mouthed  _two sickles she smacks him?_  
  
Remus looked quickly at Lily and back to Sirius.  _Nope. Not this time._  He seemed pretty sure of himself and so Sirius turned back to Lily and James.  
  
'Well… that is what they said.' She contemplated it, 'I thought they might just be covering for you. For the life of me I can't understand why all these kids look up to you Potter. But whatever.' She shrugged it off and turned around. Sirius's jaw dropped open as James flung his legs off him and practically vaulted the couch to chase after Lily.  
  
'Bloody hell Moony, have you been paying attention in Divinations or something?' Sirius asked rummaging around in his pocket and flipping two silver sickles over to where Remus sat, triumphant. Peter crawled on all fours lazily to steal James' seat and once he seemed comfortable Sirius smacked his legs down into Peter's lap, hard as he could.  
  
Lily had settled back into her seat at the table she was occupying with Marlene McKinnon and Mary McDonald, two of her four dorm-mates, and best friends. She picked up her pen to get back to her homework just as James reached their table.  
  
'Evans, you-' James stopped mid-sentence and quirked an eye brow at Lily's hands. 'What's that?' He asked, making a face at the strange looking contraption in her hands.  
  
'It is a  _pen_  Potter.' Lily rolled her eyes and began writing once again about the correct ways to use the Aguamenti Charm.  
  
'What's a  _pen?_ And why doesn't it have any feathers? How is it writing? You don't even have a pot of ink out.' James demanded. He was perfectly perplexed. He crouched down to desk level and stared inquisitively at Lily's hand as it scrawled quickly over the parchment leaving a perfect amount of ink in its trail.  
  
'It's how muggles write Potter. I don't need ink. The ink is inside the pen.' She almost sounded as if she was talking to a small child. Marlene and Mary were smiling slightly, but paying James just about as much attention as Lily was. James, getting fed up with being ignored, snatched the pen out of Lily's hand and brought it up to his glasses.  
  
'Fascinating.' He got out before Lily snatched it back and smacked him upside the back of his head. On the other side of the room they heard Remus groan loudly and the clinking of small change as Sirius laughed. 'Why haven't I ever seen you using these  _pens_  before Evans? I consider myself rather versed in your school supplies, and you certainly had quills last term. Sugar quills too if I recall correctly.' He watched Lily as she retook her seat and his hand made its way up to his head, not to rub away the pain from where he had just been smacked, but instead to mess up his hair. He did this without even realizing anymore.  
  
'I got sick of quills. They always make my homework blotchy. Now will you go away? I've had just about enough of you for one day.' James huffed, deciding not to test her, and turning around dejected he made his way back over to the boys. When he'd crossed the common room to where they were sitting casually, he glared at Peter who had snaked his spot.  
  
'Snooze you lose Prongs.' Peter shrugged. He used to be a lot more accommodating towards the other three, glad to be a part of their friend group. But the boys had been such close friends for so long now they were all perfectly comfortable with one another. James just slumped over the back of the couch resting his forehead on Sirius's stomach and mumbled something into the headrests stuffing.  
  
'Poor old Prongs, why can't she see?' Sirius started.  
  
'Silly old Evans, please look at me!' Peter continued sounding rather like a toddle mid tantrum.  
  
'Will Prongs and Evans, ever truly be?' Remus clutched his chest mockingly with his right hand, his left being occupied by a honeydukes best chocolate bar.  
  
'Evans, Evans, Prongs yearns for ye!' All three boys shouted in unison and James groaned into the couch. His friend adored embarrassing him in front of Lily. He barely noticed when Sirius's hands ruffled up his hair and rested themselves on his head while Sirius, Remus and Peter laughed at their best friend's expense.  
  
On the other side of the room Lily felt the corner of her mouth twitch but she killed the smile when she noticed Mary and Marlene grinning at her knowingly.  
  
'Lily. Really?' Marlene shook her head. 'Give the guy a break. He's going to give up if you don't give him something to go on.' There was a constant argument in the sixth year girls' dorm on the subject of James Potter.  
  
'Shut it Marls.' Lily didn't even look up from her parchment. Her tummy had a swirling feeling in it over the song they had just overheard the boys singing. They had heard it before. More than once.  
  
'Oh James, your hair is so black and messy, let me fix that for you.' Marlene said in a light voice pulling her hands up to Mary's head and thrusting her face down into her chest.  
  
'Oh my Lily. You're devilishly good at hair care. I think I might need you to do it every morning as I apparently can't seem to get it right.' Mary rubbed her head into Marlene's chest and Lily abandon her homework, chucking a bit of scrunched up parchment at them. The girls just laughed at their stubborn best friend. Everyone knew that James liked Lily. He wasn't exactly secretive about the matter. But only a select few knew that Lily had very much liked James back for about as long, perhaps even longer. The selection consisting of only the three girls at present.  
  
'You're a stubborn twonk. Just go out with him.' Mary chucked the parchment back, making sure her voice was a whisper.  
  
'No. Potter is an arrogant little pest, I might have held a fancy for him before but his head just swelled up far too much and I refuse.' Lily returned to her parchment, gripping her pen a little tighter.  
  
'The only reason you turned your nose up at him the first time he asked you out is because of that greasy snot nose Snivellus. He put words in your head Lil. Constantly putting Potter down and making sure you were always with him.' Marlene, along with Mary, never liked the idea of their friend hanging out with Snape. They saw his worst side when Lily wasn't around, as Snape always seemed to be on his best behaviour when Lily was in view. They couldn't help the small inward celebration they shared last term when the slime ball had slipped up and treated Lily the same way he treated all the other muggle-borns.  
  
'I'm glad you don't talk to him much anymore.' Mary admitted. 'And that you seem to be doing anything in your power to show him you're muggle-born and proud.' Mary nodded to the pen with a smile. Lily just grinned down at her parchment seemingly ignoring her friends. Marlene and Mary huffed together knowing the argument was useless. Lily had just fallen into a routine with James that led to her constantly turning his advances down, but she would wear down eventually. They knew that much. Lily glanced over at the boys watching as James slipped over the back of the couch, landing on both Sirius and Peter and the two boys' contested loudly. James just shimmied himself a spot between them and it wasn't long before all four were laughing and chatting about something happily. She couldn't help but smile when she saw Sirius swipe James' glasses and put them on making a face about exactly how blind James was.  
  
Lily Evans could pretend to hate James Potter all she wanted. But it was almost impossible to do so when the prat was that bloody cute, she thought, as he reached out completely missing Sirius in an attempt to regain his sight.


	5. The stickfast hex

Aaliyah was up, bright and early the next day. She had a spring in her step as she jumped down the stairs on the way to the great hall for breakfast. She had her uniform on, perfectly adjusted, prefect badge secured. She’d managed to sneak out before any of her dorm mates had even woken up and had the most relaxing bath in the prefect’s bathroom on the fifth floor. The sun was out, only slightly covered by clouds and she was just happy. When she returned to her dorm last night she could still hear Anna and her friends muttering about her. Clearly very upset about Anna missing her date or whatever with Sirius. She didn’t know why it was, but annoying her dorm mates was practically her favourite thing.

‘Good morning, Adams.’ Slughorn, her potions master, smiled at her as she entered the Great Hall beside him.

‘Morning, Professor!’ She replied, looking out at the four long tables, barely a student in sight.

‘You’re very chipper this morning, Adams. What’s got you in such a good mood?’ Slughorn asked as they walked together towards the back of the hall where the teachers table was situated and where Ali usually took a spot at the Gryffindor table, closest to theirs.

‘Not really sure, Professor. But I feel like today is going to be a good day.’ She took her usual seat but didn’t turn her body around just yet, hearing her professor out.

‘Perfect way to start the morning, Adams. Looking forward to your paper on moonstones. I always enjoy a good intelligent read! How’s your father going? Heard about his promotion. Very nice, Adams, very nice.’ Slughorn smiled down at Ali with his kind ageing face. He was known for being very bias with his students, but Aaliyah was the top of her grade in just about everything, and so was one of Slughorn’s favourites. Not to mention her father was climbing his way up the ministry, over-seeing most of the liaisons between the British ministry and Australia now which was also something Slughorn prided his students for. Not that anyone had any say over what their parents did, but Aaliyah never thought much into it.

‘Yep, he’s been having meetings with the Minister and all. He sent me a letter the other day filling me in on everything. He and Mum are still really close to Dumbledore of course.’ Aaliyah felt her smile widen. She adored her parents and was always proud to talk about them. As if hearing his own name, Aaliyah’s headmaster appeared next to them, a calm smile on his weathered face.

‘Good morning, Horace. Good morning, Aaliyah. How are you both?’ Dumbledore asked, hands clasped together behind his back. He always wore the most beautiful robes, Aaliyah thought. Magnificent blues, deep reds, shimmering teal greens. Today he had chosen a lovely lilac colour with a silver trim. His long silver beard was tucked into his belt and he had on his high-heeled buckled boots which mysteriously never made a sound on the stone floor. Ali had always secretly wondered what he did to achieve that, for it certainly wasn’t normal.

‘Morning, Albus.’ Slughorn nodded happily.

‘I was just telling Professor Slughorn about Dad’s promotion, Dumbledore.’ Aaliyah continued. 'How he’s practically running all of the ministry stuff over in Australia now. And meeting up with the Minister of magic regularly.'

‘Oh yes,’ Dumbledore nodded, ‘Christian and Kani are both becoming very well-known. I do believe your mother is now head of the fourth floor at St. Mungo’s? Got her to start making the compute late last year, Horace. Very talented family. Even your little brother seems to be rather switched on for his age.’ Slughorn looked like he was going to overload on the information. He clapped Aaliyah on the shoulder.

‘I can’t wait for your brother to start here, Adams, I expect he’ll be just as eager to learn as his big sister. What a set that will be, even if you’re not in Slytherin.’ Slughorn finished with a yearning gleam in his eye.

‘Tucker’s great.’ Aaliyah felt her smile falter a little. She missed her baby brother the most when she was away at school. Every time she went back home for the holidays he’d grown half a foot. Much to her dismay back when she was eleven and Kanika had gone into labour, Christian had announced that she had a baby brother when she entered the hospital wing with Dumbledore. But her annoyance quickly faded when she came into the room to meet him and saw the tiny baby looking back at her. Skin the same colour as Kanika’s, and a large amount of curly dark brown hair despite being fresh out of the womb. ‘I miss him, he’s a character that’s for sure.’

‘Come now, Horace, let Aaliyah get back to breakfast. I do believe she likes to finish it early in an attempt to evade the noise.’ Dumbledore winked knowingly at Aaliyah, directing Slughorn up to the faculty table leaving Ali in silence. There were probably ten or twelve other students scattered around, the only Gryffindor’s being her cousin Nay and his best friend Dirk Cresswell. Dirk was the other Gryffindor prefect of their year and he waved over at Ali. She nodded politely in return before turning her attention towards breakfast.

‘Morning.’ It was all Ali heard before she felt someone sit down beside her. She turned to be met with Remus Lupin’s form, looking even worse than he had the day before.

‘Oh. Morning.’ She was a little affronted by the company, but with a quick glance around realising he was alone, she visibly relaxed. Two encounters within two days with the same person was a personal first for her and she watched as Remus sleepily grabbed a plate and began collecting bits of food for breakfast from the selection at hand.

‘Wassnt urgh.’ Remus supplied and Aaliyah just raised a brow and spooned some scrambled eggs into her mouth.

‘Not a morning person, Lupin?’ Aaliyah presumed. He just nodded and then lay his head down on the table beside his plate and closed his eyes. Aaliyah smiled for a moment before continuing on with her food. It took Remus a full fifteen minutes to raise his head back up and they ate in complete silence. Aaliyah surveyed his face a little out of the corner of her eye. His hair wasn’t brushed and he looked even paler today. She wasn’t sure why, but the poor boy got every cold that went around. Had her mother met him, she was positive Kanika would faint.

By the time they had finished eating Remus had woken up enough to explain why he was up and about. He had offered to help Professor Sprout with some early morning pruning of the venomous tentacula’s after he, Sirius and Peter were caught in one of the greenhouses after-hours. Aaliyah had to fight the urge to ask why he had deliberately disobeyed the rules, and only just managed to.

‘You know, Lupin, they can actually revoke your prefect badge.’ Aaliyah said it rather flippantly, as she expected the reply would be something along the lines of nah.

‘I highly doubt they’d want to make any of the others a prefect. I’m not overly concerned.’ He supplied, rubbing his eyes and yawning. Aaliyah had to smile at that. Remus was quite cute in the mornings she decided. He was trying to goad his hair into sitting to one side as they walked their way back towards the Gryffindor tower.

‘Dirk Cresswell looks like he has a bit of a crush on you.’ Remus said as they reached the portrait and he gave up on his hair.

‘He what?’ Aaliyah sounded utterly concerned as she gave the Fat Lady the password and they made their way through the hole and into the common room. There were barely any students around, most either getting up and tending to their early morning rituals or making their way out the portrait hole and down to breakfast.

‘He was staring over at us a lot. Probably wondering why you were sitting with me.’ Lupin grinned at that.

‘You think so?’ Ali contemplated the thought for a moment and wasn’t really sure that someone waving at you meant they liked you. ‘I think maybe you’re reading into it. He was probably wondering more along the lines of why anyone was sitting with me at all. If you haven’t noticed, I’m kind of a lone wolf.’ Remus laughed loudly at that, which took her off guard. He recovered quite quickly though at her bemused look.

‘Do a lot of guys approach you?’ Remus asked, taking a seat in the armchair by the window and motioning to the one beside him. Aaliyah indulged him and sat down also, noticing Snowball sprawled out lazily on the windows sill.

‘What makes you think that?’ She mulled on the thought slightly, deciding that Remus was being very peculiar this morning. Although she didn’t mind as his presence seemed to provide her with something to do other than reading.

‘Oh, nothing really.’ He dropped the subject completely as he rubbed his face into the side of the armchair, closing his eyes. Snowball had noticed he was no longer alone, sitting up completely thrown with his fluffy white hair all over the place and his eyes dazed with sleep. Aaliyah reached out and moved him from the sill to securely on her lap. His grumpy, flat face relaxed as he noticed who she was and he shut his blue eyes and began to purr. As she pat Snowball, Remus fell asleep in the chair and Aaliyah quietly watched the clouds out of the windows clear panes.

She very much liked Remus and the company he provided. It was exactly like being alone, but his long deep breaths gave her something to focus on. It was curious to her that he seemed to want her company, but she didn’t press the matter. Snowball’s purring got almost as loud as Remus’s breathing when she noticed Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black coming down the dormitory stairs. They both noticed Remus and chose to ignore it, hurrying out the portrait hole. She stood up and placed Snowball down in her seat after she heard her dorm mates come down the stairs and hurry out the portrait hole after Sirius and Peter.

It didn’t take her long to take the stairs two at a time and reach her dorm. She grabbed her copy of Magical Hieroglyphs and Logograms for her Ancient Runes class first up and packed it along with her ink and quills into her bag and made her way back down the stairs. When she noticed Remus was still fast asleep she nudged him awake and let him know classes would be starting soon. He thanked her and told her to go on without him before remembering there was something he wanted to ask her.

‘Oh, I was meaning to ask you by the way.’ He almost looked a little ashamed at this. ‘I know you gave Sirius a detention tonight, which is fine and all… but I heard you gave him a double?’

‘He deserved it.’ Aaliyah defended.

‘I don’t doubt it. Honestly. But… is there any chance you might let up on the second one? It’s just… we have something planned for Saturday night. It’s- well… I kind of need his assistance with something.’

Aaliyah considered this. She would have outright refused had anyone else asked her. But Remus was just so- sweet. She almost didn’t want to disappoint him. 'I’ll think about it, I suppose. If he does a well enough job with the cleanup tonight… I guess I could drop the charges.'

‘Thanks, Adams.’ He smiled warmly at her placing an appreciative hand on her shoulder, which was a feat in and of itself with just how peaky he looked. She waved it off and made her way out of the common room and down the one set of stairs to the sixth floor where her ancient runes class was held. She was just thinking about how wonderful the morning had been when a first-year slid passed her at an astounding speed. She watched him go, all the way down to the end of the hall, and smacked into the corresponding wall. Two Hufflepuff fifth years that she had class with coming from the opposite direction, having just laughed at the first year, had their legs slide out from under them and they, too, zoomed off down the opposite side of the corridor. Aaliyah’s eyes narrowed as she glared around for the culprits.

‘Black! Pettigrew!’ She spotted them leaning on a wall not too far off. She saw Sirius quickly stash his wand and shove Peter as they corrected their posture.

‘What’s the meaning of this?’ Aaliyah shouted as a second first year flew right by her feet, screaming for help.

‘Peter!’ Was all Sirius could say as he quickly pulled his wand out and flicked it at the corridor floor, providing the counter-charm to evaporate the soap suds that had been propelling students along them. Peter merely let his jaw drop as he turned to his now highly amused best friend.

‘You little cretin! And I was actually considering letting you off with one detention, well you can forget that!’ She announced storming over to the boys.

Sirius groaned, ‘But it wasn’t me. It was Peter.’ He nodded whilst crossing his arms and staring down at his friend beside him.

‘Sirius!’ Peter all but squeaked.

‘Yeah. I told him not to. But he just wouldn’t listen. Such a rebel this one. I tried my honest to Merlin best. I even cleaned up after him so you wouldn’t have to, see?’ Sirius clasped his hands to the front of his robes in an effort to look spiffy.

‘Is that true?’ Not that she believed it, but Aaliyah asked anyway turning to Peter. A person of authority had to be in possession of all the facts before prosecuting someone after all.

'N-not at all!' Peter gave up and Sirius sighed.

‘Okay. It was me.’ He held his hands out in a fashion that meant he was giving himself up. ‘Take me away, Adams. Do your best. But please, be gentle. To an extent.’ There were a few onlookers that all ooo’d now which made Aaliyah uncomfortable. She smacked Sirius’s hands down and huffed.

‘Shut it, Black. Get to class! I’ll be seeing you in detention tonight anyway.’ She bit out and lifted a rogue first year to their feet from where they seemed to be having trouble getting back up. She just sighed as the boys laughed to themselves and made their way down the staircase and hopefully off to class. And the morning had been going so well.

*

Later on that afternoon in their double of History of Magic, James had unintentionally fallen asleep on his own shoulder. Just the tiniest amount of drool was escaping his open mouth and making its way down his collar bone. Sirius was just barely paying attention, scrawling down the bare essentials on his parchment and glancing around to where Remus sat behind them from time to time. He had been forced to pair up with Lily at a desk as James had demanded to sit near her, and Sirius had taken the spot beside him. Remus and Lily got on well enough, Sirius assumed it was because of who he chose to associate with that he and Lily weren’t better friends.

Sirius looked around to where Mary McDonald and Marlene McKinnon were sitting and wondered why they had abandoned Lily. Then he realised he didn’t actually care and turned his attention back to Professor Binns. Binns was droning on about something Goblin related and Sirius sighed, scribbling a few more notes. It was their last class of the day and he knew that if he didn’t take some kind of notes for James that they’d actually have to seek out study material instead and that was just not something he was willing to do for this class.

Sirius heard snickering coming from behind him and just managed to turn around to catch Lily in the act of thrusting a quill into the air. Remus was laughing silently beside her. Sirius wanted in on the joke. He looked back to James beside him and realised that the quill had lodged itself in his unruly hair. Another one zoomed by, joining the first. Sirius felt a smile tugging on his face. Being completely faithful to his best friend, he decided he should probably put a stop to it… probably. In a minute, anyway. He felt himself shake silently with suppressed laughter as James’s head filled with different coloured feathers. When Remus joined in his first one was very successful. Successful enough to delve itself so deep in his hair that Lily snorted so loud it woke James up. All three of the onlookers tried their best to hold back their laughter as the sleepy form of James Potter glanced around, wiping up drool with the back of his robes.

Sirius leant back in his chair, discarding the note taking for the time being while Binns seemed to be stuck in a loop and pursed his lips into a thin line so as not to smile. James was looking around still trying to figure out who had woken him up when Lily landed another one. There were at least a dozen sticking out of his head now, all managing to stay in perfectly. Sirius noticed that these particular quills were all quite unnaturally bright colours. And then they started to leak. The one Remus had gotten close to the front of his hair dripped a large green blob down his forehead. James’ hands went up to his hair and he felt the things lodged in there and whipped around.

‘What the hell?’ James uttered under his breath trying desperately to yank them out. They weren’t budging however and at this Sirius really did start laughing.

‘Now if you’ll observe, Lupin this is what it looks like when a spell is done right. Here’s hoping they’re in there well enough that he has to cut them out. The colours seem to be doing him a favour at least.’ Lily spoke loud enough for both Sirius and James to hear, but low enough not to alert the rambling Professor Binns. Remus snickered again and let another one loose. It landed smack bang on the back of James’s head and he and Lily had to crouch over on their desks to keep themselves under control.

‘You’re a bloody double agent, Moony! I trusted you!’ James seethed turning to Sirius with wide apprehensive eyes. Sirius snorted at the sight. James looked a little more like a rainbow pincushion than his best friend at the moment and he couldn’t stop himself. ‘Padfoot, help me!’ James voice almost reached above a whisper and Sirius just motioned for him to present his cranium for inspection. James quickly offered it up but even with Sirius trying to dislodge the quills, it seemed useless. And he also wasn’t keen on the idea of getting any of the travelling bright ink on his person. What if it didn’t come off? Evans was far craftier than she looked. They’d learnt that the hard way long ago. They both turned around to where Lily sat and she wore a sly smile.

‘Sorry Prongs.’ Sirius shook his head and held up a hand to Lily. She high-fived him all too happily. James fussed over his hair for the rest of the class, practically running out the door as it came to an end. Sirius had to clutch onto Remus’s robes to steady himself he was laughing so hard.

‘Ah Evans, were you not a prefect I reckon you’d fit in nicely with us.’ Sirius told her as the three remaining of the group made their way out of class together.

‘Well, that will teach him for spending all of Defence staring at my arse.’ Lily nodded matter-of-factly. ‘You guys do remember that Lupin is a prefect, though? Right?’ Her words sounded like an accusation, but her face told a different story as she smiled beside the boys. Mary and Marlene had now joined them.

‘Nice one, Lily.’ Marlene wrapped an arm around her lazily.

‘Push off you two, abandoning me when Potter walked in was the lowest of low.’ Lily pushed Marlene off her and stuck her nose in the air. Sirius noticed Remus staring sideways at the exchange, paying particular attention to Marlene, and elbowed him. He waggled his eyebrows in a seductive motion to which Remus gave him a rather rude hand gesture.

‘Let Potter know it was just a variation of the stickfast hex, would you, Black? He needn’t worry about cutting any of his precious hair. As for the ink, well, good luck with that.’ Lily laughed and waved to them as they parted ways. ‘And try to stay out of trouble would you?’

‘Actually, Evans!’ Sirius turned to Remus, lowering his face to produce what was the most cunning and sly face Remus had ever seen. Looking through his brows, hair falling forward, and a smile all but screaming a plot of murder. Remus didn’t know what was in store for him but in that moment he wanted to melt into the floor. 'Could you and McKinnon do me a huge kindness?'

‘Will you spit it out Black?’ Lily was tapping her foot, arms folded. Marlene and Mary were to either side of her looking something like backup singers in a girl band.

‘Remus, the poor darling, is feeling somewhat under the weather. I do fret for him. And I am due down in detention fairly soon. Could you possibly walk the poor dear to the common room? Keep an extra close eye on him, his temperatures have been known to spike at any time. I’ve had to save him from fainting more than once… I just can’t bear the thought of him toppling down a staircase,’ he gulped, ‘maybe even… breaking his neck!’ Sirius was now wiping actual tears from his welling eyes, his breath catching.

Remus was now the one that looked about ready to dabble in homicide, his nostrils flared and mouth but a thin line. Lily, although she adopted a front before James, was just about as motherly as they came. She wasn’t gullible and knew Sirius was putting on a show, but also knew Remus was one to get easily sick. She walked back over to Remus and wrapped one of his arms in hers and led him in the direction of the Gryffindor tower.

‘Better get his other side McKinnon! You just never know!’ Sirius shouted out in their wake, hearing the girls giggle as they disappeared around the corridor’s corner. Sirius quickly lifted his bag up in search of his two-way mirror, finding it easy enough.

‘Prongs?’ he spoke into the mirror making sure no one else was around. ‘Prongs mate, you there?’

‘What is it, Padfoot? I kind of have a situation on my hands if you’ve forgotten?’ Sirius stifled a laugh as James' head appeared to be just as full of colour and quills as it had been when he left.

‘Mate, it’s just a variation on the stickfast hex. Don’t lay an egg.’ He had to raise his hand to his mouth in a manner that he tried to put off as coughing at James’s expression. It was the exact face a child made when you took away his toys. 'Never fear my gallant prince. I got Moony back for you already.'

‘My hero.’ James flung his glasses off and fluttered his lashes into the mirror flamboyantly. The look did wonders with his current hairstyle.

‘I’ll see you after dinner anyway, got that detention with Adams.’ Sirius seemed completely unperturbed by the thought.

‘Miss you already.’ James sung, tapping his wand to each quill, having them fall from his head. Sirius quickly stashed the mirror and made his way towards the kitchens in the hope of getting a snack before marching into battle.


	6. Bloody McKinnon's

Aaliyah cleared her throat loudly causing Sirius to drop the contents in his arms. Her own arms were folded in a tight knot in front of her chest from where she stood. She was now melded to the spot about to ascend the staircase to the ground floor. She'd stayed chatting with Professor Slughorn for quite some time in an attempt to busy herself before she was due to oversee Sirius's detention. She noticed someone aimlessly wandering around the corner and didn't pay too much attention to it, until she realized who it was. It took her about a quarter of a second to do so.  
  
'Mel'n A'ms!' Sirius shouted in surprise after he'd flung around and lots his spoils. The sausage dangling from his mouth was the only item left from the stash he had nicked. He had immediately lowered his head in hyperawareness of being caught, like a dog that had been discovered digging in a bin. Once he recomposed himself, he bit into his sausage and secured the remains in his wand-free hand. 'How do you seem to find me  _everywhere_? Have you got some kind of alert system telling you exactly where I am in the castle at all times?'  
  
'And how on  _earth_  do you expect me to be doing that, Black? Do I have a map of Hogwarts? Does it tell me exactly where you are at all times of the day?' Aaliyah looked at him shaking her head as he made his way over to her. She noted his interest peak at the mention of a map as he considered it. She sighed. 'Firstly, if I had such a thing, I would do my very best to avoid you, not find you. It would certainly do wonders for our house points. And secondly, you can't actually be contemplating that? I don't know how much you know about Hogwarts but the intricate detail and level of magic you'd need to actually make a map of  _this_  school is uncharted. Don't be stupid. Are you just going to leave that there?' She indicated lazily over to the scraps of food he'd deserted on the floor.  
  
'Well I can't bloody eat it now can I, thanks to you. Gives the Elves something to do. They enjoy it.' He concluded and Aaliyah felt her teeth grind together as he raised his sausage up to take a second bite.  
  
' _Expulso!_ ' She spoke the incantation flicking her wand before his face causing the sausage to explode at just the right magnitude to spray him with the remains. Sirius looked  _shocked._  Mouth agape, staring, completely at a loss for words. Aaliyah found her lips twisting into a satisfied smirk.  
  
'What is going on with the girls at this school today?' Sirius shook his head to rid himself of stray meat chunks in the most dog-like manner Aaliyah had ever seen a human portray. 'You've all gone mental.' She merely shoved him up the stairs after making quick work of the abandoned food. They'd only made it to the ground floor when someone ran head first into them, and if Ali had to be honest, she could have sworn it was on purpose.  
  
'Oh  _Aaliyah_! Fancy running into you here.' The mispronunciation of her name made the top of her lip twitch as she and Sirius straightened themselves out only to be met with three of her dorm mates. Anna, Bianca and Maria all seemed to have more make up on than usual. Ali presumed Emily might have gotten lost in the dorm. There were five beds in there to navigate around.  
  
'UH-LEE-YAH.' If she insisted on using it she may as well have gotten it right.  
  
'Yeah, whatever.' Anna dismissed her almost immediately and turned to Sirius who visibly took a step back when she approached. 'How are you today, Sirius?' Sirius just turned to Aaliyah as if for an explanation, grey eyes wide. She found it odd, remembering that Anna had told her she was supposed to be meeting up with him tonight. It seemed as if he had no clue who she even was.  
  
'Yeah, great. Thanks.' He replied slipping between the three approaching girls and rejoining Aaliyah on the other side.  
  
'Totally blows about your detention. I  _did_  try and negotiate with her.' She fixed a face towards Aaliyah that all but said  _this thing_. 'But the little trollop seems to have it out for you still.' Ali was pretty used to this treatment by now. The only thing that shocked her was Sirius's reply.  
  
'Trollop? If anyone resembles a troll, it's you.' The snide smiles that the three girls had adopted vanished instantly. 'I'm sorry, but what was your name again?'  
  
'Sirius. It's me. Anna? We were supposed to be meeting up tonight after dinner, remember?' Bianca and Maria were looking sideways at their queen bee as she failed to maintain her composure.  
  
'Sorry, no. No recollection of that at all, mate. But you know, Ernie Bulstrode from Slytherin did get me with a hair-loss curse last month. Could have sworn he snatched up the few stray ones before I got the counter-curse in.' Sirius seemed to contemplate this while Aaliyah let loose a loud laugh to his left.  
  
'You've been snogging Ernie Bulstrode!' she couldn't hold her laughter in, it was resonating around the entrance hall. 'They're brewing a polyjuice potion in sixth year classes, you've been bloody snogging a Slytherin!' As it dawned on Anna exactly what was just exchanged between them she turned and ran up the stairs. Bianca and Maria who both hadn't uttered a word shared a look and slowly took the stairs one step at a time. Aaliyah was clutching her sides and doubled over from laughter. She could feel tears in her eyes.  
  
'This. Is. Excellent!' She wheezed out after she regained feeling in her fingers, she was grasping herself so tight from laughter she'd cut off the circulation. When she was standing again she realised Sirius was watching her with a very casual smile, leaning against the stairs banister. In that moment he reminded her of one of the hero's her neighbour Evelyn would show her in the flimsy shiny magazines she read. They didn't move like wizard pictures did, but the stories they told used to keep the two thoroughly entertained over the few days here and there they would spend together when Aaliyah was home from school. She sobered up relatively fast after that though, as the hero's in those stories always made her stomach flutter, and she didn't like thinking of Sirius Black the same way.  
  
'All right, up you go.' She nudged him, indicating to climb the stairs up to the first floor where his detention awaited. He didn't argue and it wasn't long before they were looking down at the mess Marlene had made of what was left of the chair. They both stared at it for a few seconds before Sirius spoke up.  
  
'Bloody McKinnon's.' He shook his head. The scorch marks alone would have taken an hour  _with_  magic to completely eradicate, at their level at least. Ali whipped out her wand and turned to where there was a rouge chair and went through all her knowledge on transfiguration spells. She couldn't think of the right spell.  
  
'Need a hand?' Sirius enquired with a smirk seeing Aaliyah's confused demeanor.  
  
'No!' She barked. 'I just can't remember the spell to transfigure a chair into a bucket. It'll come to me.' Sirius just sighed and tapped the chair once. It transformed instantly into a perfect wooden bucket. Not even the slightest echo of a hiccup. 'How did you do that? How did you do that non-verbally?' Ali demanded. Sirius just shrugged.  
  
'I have a knack for transfiguration.' He smiled at this like something was particularly funny. What the bloody hell is funny about that? Sometimes Aaliyah really just could not read people.  
  
'Well,  _aguamenti_.' She held her wand out as a slightly murky stream filled the bucket before she stopped it. She turned back to Sirius who seemed less than impressed.  
  
'That's murky.' He screwed up his face and Aaliyah huffed.  
  
'Well sorry, your highness. I'm not supposed to be learning the charm for at least another year. Forgive me. You try and do better.' She snapped and Sirius picked up the bucket, emptied its contents over the scorched remains with casual elegance and then repeated her actions. He created a crystal clear stream that filled to the top before he  _scourgified_  it to make it soapy.  
  
Not wanting to be outdone, ' _Flagration._ ' Aaliyah flicked her wand at the soapy water and it began to bubble from the heating hex. The two students merely stared at each other for a moment before Sirius laughed. Not that she was the expert on Sirius Black, but she could have sworn that incessant laugh was distinctly less bark-like in their younger years. 'How the hell are you doing so well with all your subjects, Black? I never see you in the library and all you ever seem to be doing is getting yourself into trouble.'  
  
'I don't need to study much.' Aaliyah found his words to be most insulting. 'I pay attention in class.' He added, like it was common sense. Aaliyah felt herself tense up at this. Had she not studied as much as she did she knew she'd have been decidedly average in the grades department. This was actually infuriating. She grabbed the bucket and thrust it at his chest.  
  
'Get to work!' Some of the water splashed out and onto his uniform. 'In silence!' She added before he could get the words out to complain. She sat down cross-legged on top of the chair-less desk and retrieved her  _Standard Book of Spells_  text to go over some of her charms revision. She wasn't really keeping track of the time and had to silently chastise herself a handful of times when she realized she was staring at Sirius over her book while he scrubbed at the ash and collected up the debris. The first time she blamed it on the fact that he'd pulled his grey school jumper over his head and abandoned it. The process quite nearly took his white school shirt with it and as much as she hated his stupid face, being very much a female, she really couldn't deny that his appearance was quite easy to admire.  
  
But that excuse only worked once. The three other times she realized she was staring she didn't know what she could argue it off as. Instead she chose to swear about him in her head like it was his fault. She was now pouring over a fourth book on the properties of moonstone that she'd taken out at lunch going over and over in her head about the importance of  _not bloody looking at Sirius Black's stupid arse_  as he angrily scrubbed at the scorch marks on the floor.  
  
 _You're better than some stupid hormonal tosser, get it together._  These were what most of the sentences comprised of. As she was letting loose a few particularly bad curse words she'd learnt from her father, she didn't realise Sirius was now standing in front of her saying her name.  
  
'Adams!' He shouted once more getting his face as close to her ear as he could, invading serious personal space barriers. Aaliyah nearly jumped out of her skin at the volume, causing her to fall backwards and bring the table along with her. A loud string of the curse words she had been trying to keep at bay flew out all in a jumble. When she opened her eyes Sirius was standing over her. He had a humoured smile on his face and his hair was falling forwards as he looked down at her with a dreamy kind of expression. He seemed to find this all thoroughly amusing.  
  
'Dear Adams, you are positively the most graceful prefect in all the school.' He offered her his hand and she hit it away as hard as she could as she pressed herself into a sitting position.  
  
'You are  _exactly_  the same as you were the day I met you. Conceited and  _rude_.' Sirius rubbed his hand looking a little puzzled as he cocked his head to the side trying to recall what she meant. Aaliyah stood of her own accord and picked the desk up. She was surprised to see just how much work Sirius had actually gotten through while she had been internally arguing with herself.  
  
'You can finish the rest tomorrow night then.' She decided, gaining a loud groan from Sirius.  
  
'Adams. I know you're a little obsessed with me but could you possibly postpone the detention for tomorrow night? I have something really important I have to help Moony with.' It wasn't until he stopped speaking that Sirius realised Aaliyah's fists were curled up into balls and shaking by her sides.  
  
'Obsessed?  _Obsessed_? With  **you**?' She had to fight every fiber of her being not to scream. Sirius Black was quite literally the only thing known to wizarding kind that could rile her up this much with merely a sentence. 'I don't care if you have a bloody funeral to go to! You will be finishing it tomorrow night, you foul little toad-boil. Now  **piss off**!' She felt like she could nearly have levitated from the sheer force of the air she snorted from her nostrils as she clutched her hands around her face and squished her own head in anger. Thankfully, by the time she recovered Sirius was nowhere to be seen. She muttered angrily to herself as she gathered up her books.  
  
She was still furious when she got to the staircase landing and as she began climbing the stairs it completely escaped her mind to jump the vanishing step. It wasn't until she was ankle deep, bag and its contents scattered all around her, that she realised what had happened. Her lower lip quivered and she felt her eyes burning. The day had started off so well, how did it come to this? Brought to tears by a git and outsmarted by a stair. She tugged at her foot for well over a minute, the tears starting to flow. It was well past nine o'clock and she didn't know how long it would be until someone found her.  
  
What if she was there all night, she thought, wiping away stray tears. She was sure she was about to get her period with how emotional she seemed to be right now.  
  
The whole situation reminded her of the time she had gotten it in her second year and had come out of the bathrooms cursing about her 'time of the month'. To her complete horror none other than Sirius Black had been in earshot and stared at her in absolute  _shock_. When she asked him what the hell he was staring at all he managed to say was  _'Are… are you a… werewolf?'_  to which he received a textbook to the head and Aaliyah screaming the best profanities she'd known behind him. He truly was a perfectly horrid little boy back then in Aaliyah's opinion. And even if he had a nice arse he was still a horrid little git now.  
  
She'd almost resigned herself to the fact that she may actually be sleeping on the staircase when she perked up instantly hearing voices in the distance.  
  
'It's perfectly alright Sirius, as I have come to understand they can be rather puzzling creature's young girls.' Aaliyah slumped back down. This night could literally get no worse. She furiously wiped at her eyes to get rid of the evidence of her emotional breakdown. Ali might not have worn as much make up as her dorm mates but she did go through the motions of applying mascara and such to her eyes in the mornings. She was cursing her vanity right now knowing that she probably resembled a Chinese Fireball at the current moment.  
  
'They're bloody mental, Albus.' Aaliyah narrowed her eyes for two reasons. That comment was clearly directed at her and since when was Sirius Black on a first name basis with Dumbledore? She didn't even address their headmaster so flippantly and she usually shared tea with him on the holidays! 'I reckon James has actually lost it over Evans. If they don't get together soon I reckon I'm going to punch him.'  
  
'Ah, well we can't have that. We'll have to devise some kind of plan to help them along.' Aaliyah had overheard enough now to feel like if she spoke up, she would feel bad for not having done so sooner. That… and she was kind of intrigued. 'I have always felt they seemed quite a smart match.'  
  
'You and the whole school Albus.' Sirius sighed like he was a fifty-year-old man discussing politics with a work colleague. She heard Dumbledore chuckle.  
  
'As much as I enjoy our little chats, you better be getting up to bed Sirius. I myself try and get as much sleep in while I can, never know when you might be up all night. Do try your best not to make a habit out of those visits. I'm quite certain mister Filch wouldn't be nearly as understanding had he been the one to bump into you climbing out of that portrait.' Aaliyah froze now. 'Oh, and perhaps it would be best to take the normal route over the passage you were planning on. You never know who might need an invaluable hand nearby.'  
  
'You're speaking in riddles again.' Came Sirius's reply.  
  
'Goodnight.' Was the last word Ali heard Dumbledore sing and following his orders, Sirius rounded the corner of the staircase not long after. Aaliyah couldn't help the sniffle she made causing Sirius to jump somewhat and raise his wand after non-verbally using the  _lumos_  charm. He just started laughing when he realised Dumbledore was just as on point as ever.  
  
'Adams, Adams, Adams. This is deplorable. You're making Gryffindor look bad.' He joked approaching her helpless position on the stairs. His laughter died somewhat when he realised she'd been crying. 'Hey. It's okay, don't fret. I won't tell anyone.' He sounded perfectly sweet as he secured his hands under her arms and lifted her up rather effortlessly. They stood face to face for a short moment, Sirius's wand lighting up the area from its lowered point. He reached his wand free hand up and wiped the last stray tear from Aaliyah's cheek as she sniffed again.  
  
'You alright?' He asked seeming genuinely concerned. Aaliyah felt a rush of blood rise to her cheeks and her face tingled slightly where he had touched her. She blinked vacantly.  
  
'Uh. Yeah.' She wiped her face again looking around at all her belongings then dropping to her knees to retrieve everything. 'Just, uh… hormones.'  
  
'You're telling me.' He laughed, handing Ali her last book and with that, the strange feeling that had erupted in her stomach died a very quick death. She just rolled her eyes and took the book. She uttered a  _thanks_  and they walked up to the Gryffindor tower in silence. When they reached the portrait and Sirius gave the Fat Lady the password Ali was thankful that he hadn't pressed the matter of her crying any further and just walked close by her side. It was somehow comforting, even despite her feelings towards him.  
  
'Listen… about tomorrow. I'm sure you'll be done with what's left in an hour, or less… after that you can get going early… to help out Lupin.' She decided looking at the floor was much better than looking him in the eyes. The fire in the common room was still crackling away and there were only two other students sitting together pouring over their parchments.  
  
'Really? Thanks, Adams!' Sirius clutched her shoulder in an affectionate way.  
  
'For Lupin!' She added once more, nodded her head, and turned around all but running up the stairs to the girls' dorms. Once she was settled in her bed, curtains drawn, ignoring the looks she got from Anna and the girls who were all gathered on the same bed, she slapped herself in the forehead.  
  
'Keep it together, Ali.' She shook her head and pulled her jumper off. Laying back she felt a smile cross her face when she heard ' _I still can't believe he went to all that trouble to snog you_ ' and actually let a laugh escape at  _'you're just a commodity Anna, that's why they try so hard to get you.'_  
  
'Would you shut  **up** Emily?' She could always rely on these girls to laugh at.


	7. The disappearance of the sixth year boys

Something was definitely up and Aaliyah was finding herself imitating their bloody caretaker Filch in a means to find out. Over the past three weeks, she hadn't handed out a single detention to any of the four resident troublemakers of Hogwarts. Remus had gotten considerably less flung his way since his fifth year, but what was going on at current was simply ridiculous. She was even opting to eat her meals at the busiest times of the day this week in the hopes of figuring out what the four boys were playing at. She hadn't caught them, not once! In three solid weeks. No funny business, none at all. Not one jinx. She'd actually given Snape more detentions after she'd found him accompanied by Wilkes, Avery and Mulciber, practising their hurling hexes on a group of first years brushing up on their flying after classes.

That was far from an enjoyable night, looking after those four. They might not have caused as much of a ruckus as the four boys from Gryffindor, but when they did play up it made Aaliyah's skin crawl. It was a vast change from the last detention she'd overseen with Sirius who had made quick work of the remaining scorch marks left by their Gryffindor classmate. He'd even managed to thank her before running off to help Remus with Merlin knows what.

'You. Come here.' She motioned to a first year boy coming out of the boy's toilets on the third floor. He complied rather quickly with a smile. 'Was there anyone in there with you?'

'What?' The boy seemed confused. 'No.' Concerned now.

'Where are they!?' She'd literally scaled the castle as soon as their last class had finished. The first year seemed mildly worried but uneager to leave. Aaliyah just raised a brow at him when she realised he was still there before turning and leaving to make for the Gryffindor tower.

Once she'd made her way up there and into the common room she was about ready to start throwing books when there was no Remus, Peter, James or Sirius to be seen. She spotted Lily not far off sitting with Mary Macdonald and decided to take the matter up with her.

'Evans!' Lily jumped out of her seat swinging around to meet Aaliyah's face.

'Adams! Holy cow I thought you were Potter.' She breathed a sigh of relief.

'Where are they?!' Aaliyah flung her hands out as if Lily's sentence only added to the matter. 'Not one bloody jinx in weeks.'

'You say that like it's a bad thing?' Lily looked sideways at Mary, noting that Ali's hair seemed a little more wild than usual. Aaliyah was usually one to pay a fair amount of care towards her appearance wanting to be neat for her role as prefect, but this morning she hadn't even bathed and had thrown her long curls into a matted bun on top of her head so better to find the boys.

'It is!' she emphasised with her hands. 'The longer they go between pranks the worse the prank! Think, Evans!' Aaliyah grabbed Lily's shoulders and shook her. Mary started to laugh into her hand beside them at Ali's outburst but Lily saw the reasoning behind the madness mid shake.

'Oh no.' Lily's eyes went wide. 'You're completely right, all four of them have been missing from meals for weeks.' Aaliyah wanted to cry. She understood. Finally someone understood! 'Does anyone know where they are?'

'I've literally searched the whole castle and I can't find them anywhere. I'm losing it!' Ali pointed to the birds' nest currently renting out the space on her head.

Mary let loose her laugh at that. 'We can see.' She shut right up though when Aaliyah turned her crazed stare on her. No one really knew Ali all that well and that look would have scared Mary even if it had come from Lily. Lily on the other hand hadn't noticed and was going over something in her head. She didn't even notice Mary scream as Ali shook her trying to make her understand the severity of what could potentially be happening under their very noses.

'Whoa, Adams. Calm down.' Lily grabbed Ali off her friend and led her over to the portrait. It was almost the end of term and the boys were dramatic enough to be planning some elaborate Christmas prank. They were climbing out the portrait hole together, Ali breathing a little easier now that someone was listening to her ravings, when they ran head first into Severus Snape. Lily sighed.

'What is it, Sev?' Ali noted not only the nickname, but the fact that Lily refused to look Snape in the eye. Ali avoided most Slytherin students as an unwritten rule, especially the likes of Snape and his gang. Those students all dabbled in particularly dark stuff at the best of times. She never fully understood why Lily wasted any time on him at all. Snape seemed to survey Ali quickly, then ignored her presence focusing on Lily.

'I- Just…' He looked at Ali once more. 'Could we talk alone?'

'No.' Lily bit out. She fished something out of her robes pocket and began drumming it on her leg. Snape of course watched her every move.

'Can't you just accept my apology?' Snape asked, watching her play with the muggle pen with a scowl.

'Why? So you can go say horrible stuff about me to your friends behind my back? I mean the only time you ever attempt these spineless apologies is when none of your goons will see you at it.' Aaliyah was beginning to feel very out of place. 'The people you hang out with actively hate me, Severus. They go out of their way to ridicule me. How do you intend to balance that little fact? Pretend I don't exist in front of them, then suck up to me when we're alone? Yeah, no thanks.' She grabbed Aaliyah's hand at that and led them away.

'I- I am sorry, Lily.' Snape spoke weakly after them but Lily made no means of replying. She was completely silent, holding onto Aaliyah's hand incredibly tight. Ali had literally no clue how to handle the situation. It was the most awkward experience she'd ever stood in on. She wasn't sure what to say to Lily at all. She would have made a rubbish best friend she thought. She tried to think what it was you were supposed to do when whatever the hell that was just happened. She realized it was probably lucky she didn't have anyone close enough to fail her lack of empathy skills miserably on.

'Ah, Evans. Not that I don't find hand holding endearing. But you're kind of squishing my bones.' Ali let out and Lily immediately stopped and turned to her dropping her hand, eyes looking a little watery. Ali yelped at that. 'No, no! Here.' She grabbed her hand and squeezed it with all her might. 'Hand holding, yay!'

Lily laughed at that and wiped away a stay tear. 'I'm so sorry. The moron just really riles me up lately.' She clearly meant Snape and Ali pat her shoulder awkwardly unsure of what else to do. In her opinion you should just tell people you didn't like to ping off and that was the end of it. What was the point of crying over some jerk that called you names? Or even giving him the chance to make you cry? But then again Lily had loads of friends and admirers so maybe she should have tried a little harder to be like her.

'Yes. Complete moron.' Ali agreed, taking in a sharp breath. She made a face trying with all her might to channel her father who always seemed to know the right thing to say when she was feeling down. Lily started laughing.

'I never noticed how expressive your face is.' Lily gave her a weak hug around the shoulders with one arm and Ali kind of froze. This was definitely not her area and she was actually thankful when they heard James Potter call out next.

'Evans!' Lily abandoned the hug and turned to meet James and Remus as they came towards the two girls. 'You alright, Evans?' James, who had a very smug look on his face previously, switched instantly as he saw Lily wipe away the last remains of her minor outburst. James visibly puffed up and looked around. 'Where is he? I'll hex him into next term!'

'Shut up, Potter.' Lily's words sounded harsh but Ali noticed her smile. It was very confusing to Ali and her eyes narrowed as she stood back to view the exchange. Remus joined her looking sideways at her expression. James and Lily were arguing about something when Remus spoke up.

'Did Snape do something cruel again?' He enquired lightly.

'I don't know what the bloody hell is going on. He said about four words to her and then she was crying. They weren't even mean. And now she's swearing at Potter but smiling. Honestly, am I missing something?' Remus actually bit his lip to stop from smirking at Ali's complete confusion. Since the time they had practised the aguamenti charm together in the library Ali had found Remus joining her now and then at her table. It wasn't front page news for anyone but herself as no one would have noticed. But she had come to enjoy their little unplanned meet ups. Mostly they just read silently together but it was comforting to her. Remus was definitely a very easy person to be around.

'Hold on. How did you know that Snape was with us? And, wait, where the bloody hell have you been?' The reason they had ventured out of the common room now came crashing back to her and Lily seemed to disconnect from where she had been arguing with James. James and Remus exchanged looks.

'Well would you look at the time!' Remus chimed.

'We best be off. Things to do. Slytherin's to hex.' James added looking around. 'If Snivellus isn't bothering you anymore-'

'How did you know that? How did you know that?' Ali felt her previous crazed demeanour flashback. She needed answers darn it. 'And you haven't hexed anyone in weeks. I'm on to you lot!' She shouted out after the two boys as they ran off from where they came. 'Holy cricket I'm losing the plot.' Aaliyah stared after them and Lily came to stand beside her, clearly just as bewildered.

*

  
'You lot are infuriating with your fixation on girls.' Peter huffed when James and Remus returned. He and Sirius were still stationed around the large table housing their newest, and what Peter believed to be their most ambivalent idea yet. They had spent weeks pouring themselves over this idea of making a map of the school. One night three weeks ago Sirius had come barging into the dorm after a detention announcing that he'd done it. He had come up with their greatest plan yet.

'A map!' Sirius announced jumping onto James' bed and bouncing up and down, throwing his school jumper on one of the many piles of clothes around the room.

'What are you on about Padfoot?' James smiled up at him rather bemused.

'A map, Prongs, my prince. A MAP.' Sirius nodded and Peter stood up from his bed and walked over to join them. They both looked up at Sirius smiling as he bounced around so very clearly high on something. 'Bless little Adams. She tries so hard to keep us in check but the little prefie has given me the greatest idea yet.'

'Get on with it, Padfoot!' Remus snapped joining them all on James' bed. He was always moody close to the full moon. Sirius jumped up once more crossing his legs in the air and landing neatly.

'We're going to make a map of the school my friends. And it's going to be great.' He was positively beaming.

All the boys clicked at once. 'A map.' James and Peter repeated and Sirius turned his attention to Remus.

'Moony? As minister of the pranks committee, what say you?' Sirius looked like he was about to explode.

'I dare say senior undersecretary Padfoot, it's highly doable.' Remus nodded once. 'Features?' Remus enquired.

'We'll have to scout out all the secret passages!' James called out as Sirius settled back into where James was propping his head up by the top of the bed, making himself comfortable, head on James' hip.

'Better make it as inconspicuous as possible.' Peter added settling in and throwing a quidditch jersey to the floor.

'Enchantments so that only we can view it.' The cogs were turning in Remus's head already.

'And!' Sirius looked perfectly beside himself as he sat up now, looking around at his three best friends with the best part he'd been saving. 'We're going to figure out a charm to make everyone in the castle show up on this map. So we know where everyone is. No matter what they're doing. The map will know. All the time. We're never getting sprung again lads.' All three of the boys sounded off in rejoice, cheering at Sirius's idea. James grabbed Sirius from behind and pulled him into a manly hug with lots of slapping of backs and yelling around the dorm.

'We're not fixated on girls.' James screwed his face up at Peter and there was a silence for a moment resonating around where they sat in the room of requirements. Remus had a brow raised and Sirius and Peter just stared at James now with highly unamused looks. 'Just one.' James added and they all joined in the laughter. Sirius grabbed a bit of pie from where they had gathered food. They didn't have time to go down to meals with what they were plotting.

'Adams is onto us by the way.' James added looking at Sirius.

'Ah, bright little witch that one.' He smirked. 'Albeit a little mental.'

'She's actually rather sweet if you get to know her.' Remus provided taking a seat by Sirius and examining the map as it faded in and out on the parchment. They were still drawing up a lot of the castle and working on a lot of the spells to make it exactly the way they wanted. They were having the most trouble with the homonculous charm as it was very advanced magic. It had taken them over two weeks just to figure out how to cast it after Remus had found a book on it. And even now the effects kept wearing off after an hour or so. They needed to make it stick. Permanently. They had Gryffindor tower drawn up in the earliest stages, which was how they spotted Snape lurking around the portrait as Evans and Adams had been making their way out together. James immediately took action pulling Remus along as he was closest at the time.

Sirius knitted his dark brows together staring at Remus. 'And you're 'getting to know' her are you Moony?' Remus detected a hint of something in Sirius accusation but couldn't quite place it. Peter looked between the two, his eyes bouncing back and forth without his head moving as the two boys surveyed each other for a moment. He just rolled his eyes turning to James.

'Prongs how are you going with the concealing charm?' He asked and Remus and Sirius turned their attention to the others.

'My brain is fried.' He let out a deep sigh slumping down into one of the chairs. 'Oy Moony, are you going home for Christmas this year?'

'Yeah. Seeing as the full moon is next week I won't have to worry mum and dad with a transformation if I do.' Remus contemplated Lyall and Hope spending their Christmas night trying to subdue their werewolf son. It didn't bringing him warm fuzzy feelings.

'Well it's Christmas at the Potter's manor for me.' Sirius smiled thoughtfully. 'Bloody thankful to be out of that hell-hole I used to call home at least. This year would be fantastic without my mother putting coal in my stocking. If it wasn't for all the bloody killings going on with the rise of you-know-who.' Sirius sobered thinking about not only the family he'd been disowned by, but the war raging outside the walls of their safe-haven school. It was odd to think that they were sat here, writing up an enchanted map to better navigate themselves around prefects and caretakers. Some of their classmates where taking leaves of absences' thanks to family members going missing, or straight up murders happening around them.

Even some of the children in the school were getting darker by the day. Mainly the gang of Slytherin's Snape busied himself with. Sirius looked at James intently.

'Sometimes I wish we could hurry up and graduate already so we could help out.' Sirius supplied, balling his hands up into fists and banging them down on the table.

'Hey, calm down there mate. We will.' James winked. 'I still reckon ol' Dumbledore is up to something with him disappearing from the school so much. We'll get it out of him. Just give it time.' James was always the best at defusing Sirius's irrational tempers. While he tended to his best friend, Peter made his way over to the food pile and grabbed a bar of honeydukes best chocolate and a ham sandwich.

'Moony.' He called out before tossing him the chocolate which Remus caught easily and smiled in return. Sirius's attention was turned back to pouring over a book with James while Remus unwrapped and bit into his favourite food. He looked around at his three friends and smiled. He could never thank Dumbledore enough for allowing him to come to this school. He probably should have told his friends off more, and definitely shouldn't have helped them out as much in the shadows, but being who he was Remus found them hard to deny. He truly adored his friends more than any of them would know.

Peter placed a hand on his shoulder, leaning over him to get a better look at the map while taking a bite out of his sandwich and in that moment Remus felt like he could freeze time and be happy forever.

'What do you guys think of throwing a good old Christmas prank?' Peter asked, mouth still quite full.

'Would we have the time?' James looked up. 'Don't forget quidditch season has started and I am captain now.' He smirked at that, with a face that the three others were all aware meant he was thinking about Evans. Sirius smacked him.

'Get your mind out of the forbidden forest you dirty stag.' To say that Sirius, Remus and Peter were all in tune with James's thought pattern would be the understatement of the century. It really only revolved around four things. Mischief, quidditch, food, and Lily Evans. Not in that order.

'Sorry pumpkin. You know you always come first.' All four of the boys laughed at that. Sirius looked back at the map as the homonculous charm wore off for the hundredth time and wailed loudly.

'We'll be dead before we get this bloody thing right! Fifty years on and it'll still be fading in and out. Moony will be Minister of Magic, Prongs will be retired from the Tornadoes or the Magpies or something. Wormtail will still be here 'cause he can't pass charms and I'll be dead from the stress of this bloody map!' He cried grabbing at his hair while the other three boys shook their heads.

'You're being dramatic.' All three of them supplied in unison.


	8. Wizarding pick-up lines

Aaliyah stared at her reflection in the prefects bathroom, alone. Her hair was wet and everywhere. She was used to it. She ran her fingers through her curls pulling the ends up to her face and surveying how much lighter they were. In her holidays back home she spent most of her time in the sun. It always being sunny where she lived, it was hard to avoid. If there was one thing she didn’t like about her appearance it was her hair. Dirt mixed with honey, that's the best way she could describe the colour. In her opinion there were much nicer colours a girl could have.

The fleks of blue in her eyes once sparked a debate with her mother. Aaliyah was disgusted that her mother thought they were anything other than green. What the bloody hell did she know, Aaliyah thought? The colour of her skin was a mixture between her father's and mother's. She would have at least felt better about her mixed race features, had her brother Tucker been the same. Yet Tucker took after Kanika so strikingly you’d have thought he was created from her and her alone.

She sighed. She missed her little brother. But there was only a few days before the end of term now and she would be able to return home to see him. Merlin was she thanking the cosmos for that. She was close to ripping out her hair, no matter its colour, thanks to the Gryffindor sixth-year boys. Six weeks on since they had start disappearing from the public eye and she was still trying to figure out what they were up to, and still failing miserably. She quickly scooped her hair up at the thought and twisted it into a bun on her head and grabbed her toiletries bag to apply some makeup. Thankfully she was finished by the time she heard someone joining her.

‘Morning.’ James said brightly. Aaliyah didn’t reply. She just clutched her toiletries bag closer to her chest and narrowed her eyes watching him as he proceeded further inside. He smirked at her, tipping an invisible hat as he went. ‘You can stay if you want?’ James supplied pulling a mangy old Tutshill Tornadoes jersey over his head. Aaliyah’s eyes widened and she left the bathroom at a bit of a run.

‘Stupid, Potter.’ She muttered descending the stairs to the library. She always gave Sirius a hard time about being a prat, but in truth James really was his equal. If not worse. There was just something about Sirius that led her to despising him much more than James. James was an arrogant bully to most people, being the only child of a wealthy family, it was common knowledge his parents doted on him. When it came right down to it, he and Sirius truly could have been twins. But Ali had managed to evade James for the most part, he was more Lily’s problem. And he had manners, she thought. He was always very polite and proper. Sirius might have been proper but he could very well have been brought up by dogs for all Ali knew. It certainly would have explained a lot.

When she made it into the library she bumped into Dirk Cresswell who smiled at her politely. ‘Going home for Christmas, Adams?’ He asked sheepishly.

‘Yeah, actually. You?’ She never knew quite how to navigate these hallway conversations. She wondered how most of the student body could stand being in each other’s presence every second of the day without running out of things to say? It must have been very tiring.

‘Yeah. Christmas is always a big affair back home for me. My parents always make us go to church services and nativity plays.’ Aaliyah frowned at that showing her confusion. She remembered that Dirk was a muggle-born and smiled to the best of her ability wondering exactly what a nativity play was and what kind of ritual it included. She didn't take muggle studies, but she learnt as much as she could from the textbooks. They truly were fascinating things to be sure. When she made no further comment Dirk continued on.

‘Oh, will you be coming back in for Slughorn’s Christmas party?’ Slughorn held an annual Christmas party for his favourite students and those he believed to be worthy, Dirk and Aaliyah being among them.

‘Well, I suppose so.’ Her mind had been so jumbled lately with making sure all her classes where perfectly on point along with prefect duties and chasing Sirius and his gang around in between. Dirk had been talking but Ali was lost in her own head. He cleared his throat and brought her attention back. ‘I’m sorry?’

‘Would you like to go with me? I mean, Slughorn’s parties always seem to be c-coupled affairs after all? It makes sense, if you haven’t already b-been asked?’ Aaliyah found it rather curious that Dirk was now blushing. After a sentence like that it would have seemed he was asking on a formality alone.

‘Uh, yeah. Ok. I guess that would be more amiable than turning up alone like I usually do.’ Dirk laughed politely. Aaliyah found him to be a little odd. What she said wasn’t nearly funny at all. In fact it was really lame as she usually did turn up to Slughorn’s dinner’s and parties early and very much alone. Slughorn never seemed to notice and always hustled her in to chat about her grades and family affairs. She offered Dirk a terse smile as he bid farewell for now. They did have prefect duties together tomorrow night and classes together that day even.

Being thoroughly glad that was over she made her way over to her table. She was slightly taken aback to see Remus was there, but not sitting, instead looking through the books closest to her usual space. It was only when she placed her things down that she realised she was still holding onto her toiletry bag and pyjamas, which she stuffed into her school bag so fast it made Remus jump.

‘Oh ha-' he contemplated something for a brief second looking very sleepy. ‘Aaliyah?’ That made Ali’s heart flutter a little. She was certain that was the first time anyone had called her by her first name at Hogwarts besides Dumbledore. She took a seat and smiled back at Remus.

‘Ali, if you prefer?’ she felt her cheeks warm a little. ‘Only my parents and Dumbledore use my full name.’ Remus joined her while she contemplated something. ‘But then I guess that’s pretty much everyone that uses it at all.’ When she looked over at Remus he was clearly holding back a smile on his airy heavy-eyed face. There was a freshly healing cut on his right cheek that she had asked him about last week that he had cleverly negated.

‘Well, Ali it is then.’ This time her stomach felt light and she smiled involuntarily. ‘Why are you down here so early?’ Remus didn’t have his bag or any of his school things with him Ali noticed. He was barely in his uniform with just their white school shirt and the boys black trousers on, even his prefect badge was missing.

‘Uh, Remus.’ She had no idea why but her stomach did a small backflip when he smiled at her after she used his name. She didn’t know what the bloody hell was going on with her insides but she was sure she didn’t like it. ‘Why are you checking out Hogwarts: A History? Six years in and I’d imagine you’d know enough by now?’

Remus let forth a very unconvincing laugh while hiding the second book he was holding under the Hogwarts: A History text. ‘Just brushing up. You can never know too much about Hogwarts.’ Aaliyah knew a cover up when she saw one. Running around after Sirius Black, James Potter and Peter Pettigrew for the last three and a half months had taught her enough.

‘Remus Lupin. What are you hiding?’ Remus grabbed the books and rushed around the table.

‘Really got to run, Ali! Might see you later!’ And with that he was off. Ali huffed so loudly she received a ‘shush!’ from Madam Pince. She would have been a lot angrier had it been anyone else, but she decided to let it go. She was still trying to figure out what the bloody hell was happening to her stomach whilst they’d been talking. She’d never quite felt this way before and thinking about Remus calling her by her preferred nickname made her blush. She touched her cheeks and wondered to herself if this meant she was getting sick.

*

Back upstairs in the prefects bathroom James gave himself a once over in the mirror before nodding to himself with a smile. ‘Handsome devil.’ He concluded out loud to himself and tried to make sure the front of his hair sat up the way he liked it. Not that he really had to put much effort into making his hair any more wild than it already was, but he knew that if it didn’t dry in at least some kind of orderly fashion it would be destroyed the minute he found Lily.

She liked to point out that he messed up his hair on purpose, but in truth it was actually the opposite. He had a nervous twitch around her that caused his hand to immediately assault his hair without him even realizing. Not that he’d ever let on to it. He was James Potter after all, not some stupid hufflepuff git that didn’t know left from right. He was the quidditch captain that had led them to their first victory of the season last month. Against Slytherin! He straightened his badge on his white shirt. He contemplated tucking it in then decided against it. It’d just come back out down the track so what was the point?

Once he’d pulled his robes on over his shirt, opting to leave off his school jumper today, he gathered up his things and started to whistle as he left the prefects bathroom. He took the stairs two at a time back up to Gryffindor tower. James Potter was certainly a morning person. Always had been. When he’d climbed through the portrait hole and made his way up the boys staircase he threw his dorm door open loudly and was met by Peter, dressed and clearly a little ticked off.

‘What’s up, Petey?’ He asked in a sing-song voice.

‘I’m not Petey. And I’m not bloody bothering with him again, he can sleep through his potions class! I’m not even in potions.’ He sounded rightly peeved as he pushed by James and was out the door in no time. James found his attitude a little strange as he and Peter were usually the morning crew. They woke up the earliest together and spent their mornings with a brighter attitude than the other two. Remus would walk into their bed posts for an hour before he figured out what was going on and Sirius-

‘Ah.’ James realised what Peter had meant. He flung his effects towards his bed, missing it completely, and made his way over to Sirius’s. Their dorm always kind of looked like a bomb had hit it. Back in their second year James and Sirius had figured out about the house elves at Hogwarts and commissioned them to keep out of the dorm as they kept cleaning things up and it made it harder for them to find. After all, what self-respecting guy cared about putting their socks away? Well besides Peter. He was the clean one. In their third year he used to run along behind the boys and try to keep the dorm some semblance of tidy but sort of gave up when he realised he was living with three of the most untidy boys he’d ever met.

Peter’s bed was the first on the left when you walked in, and it was the cleanest spot in the room. He had his things away in his trunk and his bed was always made. There was only a few things lying around near his bed but it got progressively worse.

Remus’s bed was the next one and although he was tidier than Sirius and James, he was a not nearly deserving of the word tidy. There were clothes everywhere. Flung around the banisters of the bed, scrunched up and stuffed in any place they would fit. Books laying open, books with socks in them as markers for where he was up to, books open upside down under his bed gathering dust. Wrappers of honeydukes best chocolate littering nearly every space of wooden floor within a two metre radius of his bed. Chocolate crumbs staining his bed sheets as he usually nibbled at it in bed at night coming up to the full moon. And after the full moon. And, well let’s face it, every other night, too. If you wanted something from Remus Lupin, one only need supply him with chocolate.

Remus had a calendar counting down the days to the full moon stuck up to the right of his bed. There was a bin in between Remus’ and Sirius’s bed that could very nearly have something living inside of it, they weren’t sure, and no one was really game to go near it anymore. Sirius was the worst out of the lot. James put it down to him having freedom at Hogwarts whereas back at the Black Manor he would have had to keep his room tidy save getting a good beating around the head from his mother.

Sirius was dead to the world on his bed, like he usually was at this time of morning. He was flat on his back, one hand resting on his stomach clutching his wand and the other flung out beside him. He had no sheets on his bed as he was a messy sleeper and they were clutching on for dear life draping from his bedsides. He had blown up one of his pillows for fun weeks ago and there were still feathers everywhere from it. There were dirty dishes covering his bedside table, a sock poking out of one of the cups. Their prized possession, the marauders map, not far from his grasp. Most of the castle had now been sketched out and the homonculous charm was lasting longer and longer. There was still a long way to go, but they were never prouder of anything in all their lives. Sirius had a few muggle posters up of motorbikes that Remus had gotten for him at his request to annoy his mother. When he ran away from home over the break and turned up at James’ door however they were a few of the things he had saved.

James smiled after skipping over to his best mate’s bed and plopping down on it, pushing his leg out of the way.

‘Sod off, Pete!’ Was all Sirius got out before curling up into the foetal position, hugging his wand.

‘Morning, Sunshine.’ James tickled Sirius’ back and he just grumbled. ‘Sluggy won’t be happy if you’re late to class. You’ll want to get a shower in mate you kind of smell.’ Sirius didn’t move or make any attempt to let James know he was listening. James sighed. This was always the worst part of the day, trying to get Sirius-Princess-Black to come to terms with the fact that he couldn’t stay in bed until noon. James looked over to his own bed, which was just as bad as Sirius’s albeit the sheets were still semi-connected to the mattress and there were less feathers around. James also had a very many Tutshill Tornadoes posters with the players zooming around on their brooms pinned up. He had also ripped part of the drapes of his bed on the side closest to the door. They were now hanging limply from where he had tried to use them as a cape and tripped over them in the process, tearing them as he fell to the floor.

‘Come on Padfoot, up you get!’ he snaked his arms under Sirius’ and made to lift him up but all he got in return was a swift elbow to the head, which knocked his glasses to the floor. ‘Bloody hell Sirius we really need to work on your morning skills.’

At least when he’d located his glasses and replaced them on his face Sirius was now in a sitting position looking very dazed and arguably ridiculous. His usually well-kept hair sat flat, stuck to one side and puffing out of the other. He had drool glistening on his cheek. The side of his face with the drool was also marred with red lines and his grey eyes were only barely half open, his long lashes still knit together.

‘You elbowed me.’ James rubbed his head.

‘You deserved it.’ Sirius’s lip turned up. Oh yeah, he was in one of his moods alright. James and Peter often argued that the two of them should have received as many house points as they lost from their pranking endeavours for getting Sirius and Remus out of bed in the mornings. Remus was not nearly as bad as Sirius, who usually woke up exactly as he was now, grumpy as all hell and more likely to jinx you than speak to you. Remus on the other hand, who James had managed to get up earlier in an attempt to get more information from the library for the map, was usually still half asleep come midday. Needless to say that any classes he took in the mornings were not his strong suit.

‘’Searl- uh.’ James turned around at Remus’s voice and saw him standing in the doorway, decidedly confused. Then something clicked. ‘It’s too early for this.’ He decided, marched inside and threw himself and the books he’d located on James’ orders down on his bed. James silently cursed at that, it had taken him twenty minutes to get Remus up and that’s why he had left Sirius up to Peter.

‘That little rat.’ James muttered looking around and then he heard something coming from downstairs.

‘Come on, Mary! It doesn’t matter how much time you spend on it, it’s going to look the same.’

‘Evans!’ James jumped up abandoning his previous task easily. He didn’t even listen to the, ‘Leave it alone, Prongs’ he got from Remus, he just took the stairs as many as he could at a time but made sure the last steps that he could be seen taking were very casual ones.

‘Alright there, Evans?’ He tried his upmost to sound more mature. Manlier. That’s what his dad had told him to do, be a man. She’d notice him if he was a good manly... well there had been a lot more to it, but as he remembered the only thing that stuck was ‘man’.

‘Morning, Potter.’ Lily replied watching out of the corner of her eye as he approached. She wouldn’t turn her full attention on him, he would take far too much satisfaction from that.

‘Interested in making some magic together? My wand is at the ready.’ James had taken to coming up with severely bad pickup lines for the last three months. He’d noticed a change in Lily after last term when Snape had called her a mudblood. Usually she was more than ready to jump down his throat and curse him into the next week but this year seemed different, if only slightly. He didn’t know what it was, but she wasn’t handing him out detentions, nor was she making him feel like the sight of him was making her furious. So he decided to play with the newfound freedom.

‘Oh my god, Potter!’ Lily shrieked and smacked him with the copy of the daily prophet she’d been holding. Marlene who was stood beside her was laughing loudly. She also received a smack. ‘Don’t encourage him, Marls!’ James rubbed his shoulder where he had taken the hit but could have sworn he could see a smile on her face. He wouldn’t have continued with them unless he’d seen that smile each time.

‘Mary! Hurry up!’ Lily looked over to James and he supplied her with a smirk. She just rolled her eyes.

‘Truly though, Evans. How are- er- your pens going?’ James felt his nervous side rearing its head as his hand made its way up to his hair and dived inside his disorderly locks and rummaged around. What the hell was he doing? Trying to find a rabbit in there? He quickly pulled it from his head, trying his best to look as cool as was allowable in the current situation.

‘You know I think I might,’ Marlene snorted trying not to laugh, ‘go get Mary.’ She dodged Lily’s paper once more and made for the stairs.

‘I have no friends.’ Lily let out in the lowest menacing voice she could manage. James’s heart sort of skipped a beat because he found her angry face to be among his favourites. It was unfathomably cute. The way her pink bottom lip pushed upwards. The way her strikingly green eyes tried their best to look irate but adopted more of a smacked puppy look. To anyone else Lily probably would have looked rather scary, but to James she just looked endearing. He caught himself smiling like an idiot and quickly made use of his hands, pulling his glasses off to clean them.

‘So, what are your plans for Christmas, Evans?’ When he looked up Lily was scooping the hair up off her neck in an attempt to secure it in a ponytail. She paid nearly no attention to him and at that point he was glad because he most certainly did not look ‘manly’ as the motions of her hands touching the back of her neck almost made him weak at the knees.

‘I’m- are you okay, Potter?’ Lily had turned around to answer him and found him looking decidedly strange.

‘Oh, yeah. Fine. Great actually.’ James wanted to punch himself for getting caught looking like a moron next to a veela. ‘You just look really pretty today.’ He admitted and at that Lily’s eyes connected with his. She seemed mildly shocked by his words as she forgot what she had been doing with her hair and it dropped back down to frame her face. The silence between them brought up some very awkward feelings for James and he began to panic.

‘Ah, yeah, you’re so hot Evans, aguamenti couldn’t put you out!’ He let loose a loud laugh at that and didn’t see Lily brandish her wand.

‘Tarantallegra.’ Lily spoke the word as Marlene and Mary joined her from the girls’ staircase and began sniggering when James’ legs started to dance uncontrollably. They exited the common room while James called out to Sirius and Remus trying furiously to stop himself from kicking everything in sight.


	9. The Adams family

As Ali stared out the window of the Hogwarts Express where she sat alone in the prefects carriage, she couldn't help the smile that came to her face at the memory of James Potter dancing around the Gryffindor common room. Three days prior she'd come back from the library to stow away her pyjamas and such. When she came through the portrait hole however, James was clutching a nearby armchair while his legs decided to take part in a traditional Irish step dance against his will. Once she had hit him with the counter-jinx he had thanked her profusely but that didn't stop it from being entirely too funny.

She was happy to be going home though, as the Hogwarts Express made its final few miles she realized that the train was a lot emptier than it usually was. Many parents were telling their children to stay at Hogwarts as it was much safer for them there than out in the open. Just yesterday a hufflepuff fourth year boy was escorted from the great hall during breakfast after he had received word that his older brother, an Auror fresh out of training for the ministry had been among the recent escalating death toll of the war. Aaliyah fiddled with her wand and stood up electing to go on one last patrol of the train before it arrived in London.

When the train came to a stop she quickly made her way to the closest exit and spotted her family immediately. Her tiny mother, who she was thankfully nearly a foot taller than now, waved happily. Her father who was only slightly taller than the average wizard looked like a giant beside Kanika. And in between Christian and Kanika, holding onto both of their hands, was her little brother. He broke loose from them as soon as he saw his sister and made a run for her. Aaliyah dropped down to her knees and pulled him into the tightest hug she could manage.

'You're squishing me you giant!' Tucker complained after a moment and Aaliyah let him down to breathe. She couldn't take any kind of offense to the things he said, she just adored him.

'I've missed you!' she put her hands up to his tiny face and he gave her a wide smile, his baby teeth having all very much come through, but there was a large gap in between his two front ones.

'I guess you were kind of missed.' Tucker debated this for a moment. 'I mean, I definitely missed snowball.' Tucker waited for his big sisters reaction but she had missed his quick-witted replies far too much to be angered by them yet. Give it a day.

'Come here!' Kanika grabbed her daughter the minute she was close enough and pulled her into a hug. 'Have you grown? Stop doing that!' She smacked Aaliyah lightly as Christian pulled her sideways into his body, winking at her from where he towered over them all. Tucker made hands at her that meant he wanted to be lifted and she happily obliged.

'Gosh Dad, you're looking snappy.' She commented, taking a step back with Tucker in her arms. Her father was dressed in a very nice grey-teal set of dress robes. He had a silver pocket watch showing on his waist coat and his tie was perfectly tied. He made a show of it as he grabbed the sides of his long jacket and provided his daughter with a lopsided grin. Aaliyah was laughing until she saw Sirius Black in her head doing the exact same move when she had found him on the sixth floor jinxing first years to slide along its length.

Her eyes went wide at the similarities but she quickly shook it off when Tucker decided to start informing her of all the Ministry work he'd been doing while she was off gallivanting around at school like a ninny. He was four and he was already accomplishing more than she could ever dream. Or so he told her. She just nodded with a smile on her face as they located Snowball and made to exit platform nine and three quarters to make for Diagon alley where they would use the floo network to get home.

By the time they had made it to Diagon alley, Tucker had half-heartedly insulted his big sister more than a dozen times trying to get a rise out of her. He took after their mother in looks, no doubt about it. But when it came down to personality he was Christian all over. Christian adored his wife more than anything else in the world, but it was easily known that his favourite past time was seeing exactly how far he could push his boundaries with her before she turned around and hit him. People that knew Kanika knew not to mention her height. Christian made a point of stating it at least once a day. Were Kanika not so in love with him, she surely would have killed him.

'Did you want to buy any of your friend's presents this year darling?' Kanika asked Aaliyah as the bricks of the leaky cauldron sealed up behind them. Ali froze slightly with Tucker in her arms still, but recovered almost instantly.

'Nah, should be right Mum.' She never let on to her parents about just how little friends she had, nor did she talk about how many she had either. She left school talk to the very minimum when she was home deciding it was best to just leave them out of how little socializing she actually participated in. It wasn't like she was completely alone when she was there. She did speak to other students. This year especially saw a rise in her social interactions, after becoming a prefect she found she was far less in the shadows than she used to be.

'Yah-yah doesn't have any friends.' Tucker grinned at her. 'She's just a big book head.'

'You're right. I don't need friends. I have you.' Ali supplied merely hugging him tighter and at that Tucker seemed to give up his attempt to annoy his sister and hugged her back. The mention of the word friend brought Aaliyah's mind to none other than Remus Lupin though, and she wondered if she was to buy him a present, what on earth would it be? She really didn't know him all that well, even if the thought of him made her feel funny.

As they walked the streets of Diagon Alley it became apparent just how untouched Hogwarts truly was. There was always a reminder that their world was at war when at school. With the list of missing, tortured and dead in their morning paper deliveries it was hard to ignore. Or seeing students not coming back after breaks due to fear or grief. But Diagon Alley showed something else. A place that would usually be bustling with witches and wizards was now rather bare. At least every second shop had closed down. Their usually bright window displays boarded up with wooden planks, a few of them not even bothering as their widows had been smashed. The places that were still open had misintry flyers littering the walls. Each displaying an undesirable or words of caution.

Christian came up close to Ali and hugged her into his side, doing the same to Kanika to his left. He seemed to be very switched on, his eyes darting around the streets and fixing on some of the pop-up stalls that had made home around the place. Some of the wizards would stop and stare as the family passed by but mostly everyone that was on the street was making their way into the next store, never staying out in the open for too long.

'You kind of forget how bad it's gotten when you're away at school.' Ali admitted, hugging Tucker into her as she walked in time with her father and mother.

'Never forget Ali-bear. You can bet you-know-who doesn't, so you shouldn't either.' Her father suddenly seemed a lot taller at that moment. Almost like he commanded respect. Ali wasn't sure what it was he did at the Ministry anymore, he only really told her about the more fun parts, yet she assumed it had something to do with the war. Her mother ushered them into Gringotts where she withdraw some money while the three others waited. They only made their way to a few shops before they decided it was best to get going.

'Oh Mum, I need some dress robes. Professor Slughorn wants me at the Christmas party again this year.' She remembered at the last minute.

'Chris could you get Tuck home? I worry.' Kanika requested.

'Anything for the world's smallest witch.' Christian winked and before Kanika could hit him, he'd scooped his son up and parted ways. Ali was smiling as she and her mother made their way into Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. It didn't take them long to find some nice ones to try on and there was a moment when Ali came out of the fitting room and hugged her mother for no real reason. Kanika just stroked her back in a soothing fashion knowing it meant she was happy to be with her.

'I miss you all so much when I'm away.' Ali admitted letting her mother go and looking at herself one last time in the mirror. The dress wasn't a show stopper in any sense. Just a simple scoop-necked light orange dress that fell to the floor and complimented her skin-tone.

'I don't know how you can miss those two. They drive me up the wall on a daily basis.' Kanika frowned just thinking about their two boys. Christian was raising a miniature version of himself that was for sure. She found it humorous that their daughter looked more like Christian yet acted like her and their son was the spitting image of herself yet could not be denied of being Christian son. She smiled warmly at Aaliyah looking at her in the mirror. 'You look beautiful sweetie.'

As she looped a few of Aaliyah's curls around her fingers and readjusted one of the light sleeves to sit better, she told her to get changed so they could join the terrible two at home.

*

The next night Aaliyah had progressed from merely smiling at her little brother's wisecracks to handing them straight back to him, which was exactly what Tucker always aimed for. She was lying belly down on her bed going over some of her Arithmancy text when her door creaked open and Tucker poked his head around. She nodded in a fashion that meant he could enter and he ran across the distance between the door and the bed and leapt up onto it, grabbing at her bed sheets to aid him.

'Dad told me to come annoy you 'cause they're having a meeting with Uncle Dumbles.' He announced settling into her side as she wrapped an arm around him. He made a face at her textbook.

'Dumbledore's here?' Ali wasn't all that surprised. When she was younger he used to visit sporadically, but lately, his visits were becoming more and more frequent.

'And a whole bunch of other wizards.' Tucker turned his nose up at this and rolled his eyes. 'They're always using our house for meetings.' He started flipping through her pages wondering why on earth anyone would want to read this. 'What kind of silly book only has numbers?'

'Come on, we should go and say hello. Dumbledore is my headmaster. Will be yours too when you go to Hogwarts and study these silly number books.' Ali added and when Tucker replied with exactly what he thought about the 'silly number book' she imagined his Hogwarts time would be rather different from her own. He was most definitely not going to be as quiet as she was, that was for certain.

As the siblings made their way through the stone halls of their home, and down the two flights of stairs to the sitting room where Tucker had informed Ali the adults were, they stopped at the door when they heard low shouting.

'You can't be serious Albus! If you try and tell the ministry that they'll have you locked up!' A voice that neither of the children knew sounded and Aaliyah put a finger up to her lips to indicate to her little brother to be quiet. He grabbed her hand and stood still beside her.

'I am very much serious, Gideon. I do believe he has his networks very vastly established within the ministry which is why I assure you, we shan't be letting it go further than these walls.' The familiar sound of her headmasters light voice floated out of the doorway and Aaliyah's interests were more than peaked.

'Well you have our help, no matter what, Albus. I have my eyes and ears open all day at work.' Their father spoke. Aaliyah could easily tell this wasn't the time to be stepping in to give a polite hello to her headmaster and knew she should probably have led her brother off somewhere to keep him occupied. But something about the urgency of the conversation had her glued to the spot.

'We've built a good foundation now, we can start fighting back. Let's fight.' Another voice neither of them knew. 'The Order has to-'

'Be quiet, Benji. You have no idea what you're talking about. I don't want to be scooping your remains off the pavement so be wise for Merlin's sake.' Kanika chastised. The only thing that stuck in Ali's head was the word order. What the hell were they all talking about? Tucker was starting to get restless beside her. He was somewhat beyond his years mentally, growing up the same way Aaliyah had surrounded by adults. But he was still just four years old and therefore easily distracted. He grabbed onto the dress she was wearing and yanked it a few times to get her attention.

'Can we go find Snowball? I want to dress him in the clothes I made.' He whispered. Aaliyah had attempted to stop her brother from speaking but it was too late now and she knew they were busted when Kanika's head popped around the sitting room's ajar door and she glared at them.

'What do you think you two are doing?' Ali's eyes went wide. If there was one thing you did not do at the Adams residence it was angering their mother. Ali picked Tucker up as fast as she could and rubbed his head.

'He hurt himself. He wanted you.' Tucker played along almost instantly knowing just how scary their mother could get. He let loose a few tears, both the children knowing their mother couldn't abandon her maternal and healer sides. Kanika quickly rushed over to them and took Tucker from his sister. As she investigated her son's possible wound site Ali looked over to the doorway that was now wide open and had their father and her headmaster standing inside of it.

While Christian didn't seem overly fretful, he looked slightly concerned. For what reason, she didn't know. Dumbledore seemed completely unfazed and peered at her over his half-moon spectacles. He wasn't smiling though, which she found unnerving. He was always smiling at school. Beyond them she could see a small gathering of witches and wizards most of which she didn't know. Two large redheaded men stood together near the fireplace at the back of the room.

Another wizard stood closer to them with long wild brown hair and a heavy moustache. She was vaguely aware of this one, Edgar Bones, a friend of her fathers at the ministry. Another man who looked to be the same age as Dumbledore sat on one of the couches beside a friend of her mother's from school, Emmeline Vance. Aaliyah had known her since she was little. She was a very talented witch. There were at least four more that she had never seen before. Before she could ask any questions Christian was beside her, placing a hand on her head.

'Better get back upstairs Ali-bear. Keep an eye on your brother for a bit would you? Got some important stuff to go over with Albus about… well, never you mind.' He smiled down at her before hugging her into his side. Aaliyah was more than a little confused at this but realised her brother was now standing beside her, taking her hand. Kanika had darted by them and back into the room and Christian was about to do the same.

'Dad.' Ali stopped him holding onto her little brother's hand tightly. 'What's the Order?' Christian only supplied her with a look that said he disapproved of her listening in before pointing down the hall to where they should have been retreating. Ali knew when she was defeated and complied.

'Good acting back there, Tuck.' She said trying her best to bring a better attitude to the situation. She didn't want to worry her little brother.

'Well I had to save your butt, didn't I?' He glanced over to her with a smirk to gauge her reaction. Aaliyah was still too focused on what she'd just overheard to realise what he'd said. Tucker sighed knowing his opportunity was crushed.

'Make sure you don't say butt in front of Mum.' She replied after a few moments with a nostalgic smile. 'Or Dad will get yelled at again.' She knew all too well exactly how Tucker would have learnt that word. Christian used to teach them to her when she was his age to infuriate Kanika. She was quite sure her first words weren't 'mama' or 'dada' like a normal babies' were. Nor were Tuckers.

The siblings made their way back up to Aaliyah's room and busied themselves with Snowball. Tucker had created an array of outfits for him with supplies lying around the house and Snowball looked grumpier than usual as he was subjected to the fashion show. It wasn't until an hour or so later than Kanika had come up to her room to check on them, in her work uniform. She kissed them both goodbye before disapparating for St Mungo's where she was the healer-in-charge of the fourth floor, dealing with spell damage.

Christian came in a while after to find out what his children were up to. Aaliyah took this as her chance for information. She knew her mother was iron clad when it came to secret keeping but her father on the other hand was decidedly lax with children vs. adults.

'Dad?' She asked as he laughed at Snowball with Tucker in his lap on the floor. 'Will you tell me what the order is?' He stiffened only slightly when Snowball made a get-away and Tucker leapt up to chase him.

'Ali-bear. I don't think your mother would approve.' He looked over to her with his kind, bright blue eyes. Ali just snorted.

'Don't even try that. Or I'll tell her about the time you lost me at work for three hours when I was eight.' She knew exactly how her father worked. Christian gaped.

'You wouldn't.' Ali gave him a look that said "oh I would" and so he continued. 'Well, it's an organisation that Albus has formed as sort of a retaliation against you-know-who.'

'Isn't that dangerous? Are you and Mum both in it?' She had figured it out slightly but his words had confirmed it. Thinking of her parent's going up against what was looking like the darkest wizard of their age made her heart sink.

'Don't fret, your dear old Dad is worth more than he looks.' He supplied her with an award-winning grin. Once again she had a flash back to none other than Sirius Black who supplied her with that same grin the night she'd caught him jinxing two Ravenclaw girls' robes to fly above their heads. She shook her head wondering why on earth she had been reminded of that little git twice now when speaking to her father. 'As for your mother. I dare say she could probably end this war on her own with that attitude of hers.' They both just nodded vacantly in agreement.

'Oh your mother used to give me the roughest time at school.' Christian continued fondly. 'Used to get me into all kinds of trouble for being the little pest I was.'

'I can only imagine.' Aaliyah replied deadpan thinking of just how much of a handful her teenage father might have been. He was a handful now.

'I thought she despised me for the longest time. But I managed to charm her in the end.' He waved his light eyebrows at his daughter as she laughed. Tucker re-joined them with a protesting Snowball securely in his arms. She realised she was being silly worrying about her parents. If they had joined forces with Dumbledore to put up a fight against Voldemort then she could only be proud. They could both certainly take care of themselves. She watched as Christian whispered something to his son and tapped his wand to the fluffy white cat. Suddenly Snowball became an alarming shade of pink. They laughed furiously as he caught a glimpse of his paw and nearly jumped five feet in the air from shock. The poor cat definitely preferred being at school with Aaliyah than being anywhere near the terrible two torturing him at present.

Aaliyah just relished in the happy moment of their laughter before Christian announced it was time for some Christmas pudding to which the siblings cheered.


	10. The Potter manor

‘James! Sirius! Breakfast is ready boys!’ Mrs Potter called up the stairs to the two who were currently situated in one of the guest bedrooms. James was flicking Sirius’s ear with a smirk. Every time he did so the sleeping boy would lift his hand to swat whatever was disturbing his slumber away but James was far too fast with his quidditch honed reflexes. He moved on to his nose now as his mother made a second call up the stairs.

‘Coming, Mum!’ James called back after flicking Sirius so hard he woke up and fell out of bed.

‘What was that thud?’ She called out and James sighed. Why did parents have to yell? If she wanted to know she could just walk up the bloody stairs and find out, he thought.

‘Nothing, Mum!’ He called back once more watching as Sirius registered what was going on. He glared at James after his realization of the current situation was reached.

‘Piss off, James. Go toss off over Evans or something.’ He rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands and pushed his hair out of his face.

‘Padfoot I know your dear old mum used to make you keep your hair respectable, which is why you seem to be relishing in the fact that you can now let it grow, but do you think perhaps it might be time for a haircut?’ James had a wonderful smile on his face as he sat perched on what used to be the one of the two spare beds, but was now happily the sleeping quarters of his best friend.

‘Why don’t you get a haircut?’ Sirius was not a morning person, in any sense. James stared blankly at him and proceeded to slow clap as Sirius pulled himself back under the covers and curled up like a dog. James snorted out his nose and held his head high knowing what he was about to do could very well award him with an onslaught of jinxes. He stowed his glasses away in his pyjama pocket and yanked the blanket off of Sirius and jumped up on the bed bouncing around so furiously Sirius flew off.

He let loose a girly squeal when Sirius jumped up off the floor and dove towards him. He managed to avert his grasp and made for the door. Sirius following close behind. He slid down the staircases’ bannister and made a run for the kitchen where his mother was and where he would be provided sanctuary.

‘No running in the house James!’ She shouted as Sirius skidded in behind them. ‘Oh good morning, dear.’ She scooped the figure of Sirius up into a hug and kissed his forehead, diffusing the tension immediately. If James was the best at dissipating his tempers at school, it was nothing compared to the effect his mother had at what was now their mutual home.

‘Morning Mrs Potter.’ Sirius just smiled as she made an attempt at running her fingers through his hair. She was an elderly woman, her once red hair now turned white from time. Her hazel eyes smiling back at him as she hugged him once more. Sirius could never have imagined life could be like this. Waking up in the morning to a loving atmosphere and the smell of bacon and eggs waiting for you. Well he could, because that’s what Hogwarts had always been. But since running away from home, the happy times never had to end and he sometimes felt like he was undeserving of such emotions.

‘Sit, sit!’ She ordered pointing to the chairs around the kitchen table. James had already pulled one up and was reaching for some bacon. Sirius took a seat with his usual morning temper being completely averted. It was rare for sure. James had figured out that there was literally only one person that could have this effect on him and it was his dear old mum. ‘Where is your father? Probably busying himself in that garden again. It’s not yet ten thirty and he’s already rolling around in dirt.’ She tutted loudly rolling her eyes and making her way over to where the pancakes were simmering.

Both James’ parents had been retired for some time now. His father had come from a largely wealthy line of purebloods and so they decided once they finally received their miracle baby they would devote every second they could solely to him. Mrs Potter came around the table to put the freshly cooked pancakes in front of them and kissed her son’s head running her fingers through his hair. James beamed up at her.

In Mrs Potter’s eyes her son was her most prized possession. She and her husband had devoted so much of their lives to work that when they finally decided to start a family they thought it might have been too late. They tried for years with nothing, and by the time they thought it was very nearly impossible, James came along. The two were beside themselves with joy. They doted on James like he was blue of blood. But Mrs Potter also wasn’t a young woman and so she wasn’t one to have the wool pulled over her eyes. She knew when James was out of line and punished him accordingly.

They brought their son up to do a very many things. They of course got him involved with sports from a young age, Mr Potter’s doing. Mrs Potter made James practice things such as penmanship and linguistics among other things. They were delighted when he was sorted into Gryffindor and Mrs Potter even cried when James had written home about receiving his title of quidditch captain. Needless to say, James was very spoilt. They really couldn’t help themselves most of the time. But they did try and bring him up to be respectful and kind.

As the two teens scoffed down their breakfasts Mr Potter dallied into the kitchen, removing his gardening gloves casually. He smiled at his wife with his dark brown eyes, covered by thick glasses, creasing heavily in the corners. ‘It’ll be cold with the time you’re making.’ Mrs Potter shook her head but it was quite apparent that she wasn’t at all upset. Mr Potter ruffled up Sirius’s hair as he took a seat beside him and there was a warm calm atmosphere all around as they ate.

‘Sirius m’boy. How are all the lessons going? Still top of all your classes with James?’ Mr Potter offered up some light breakfast small talk and Sirius grinned.

‘I reckon I’m probably better than him in more than half of our classes, actually. He spends way too much time sulking after Evans.’ This was clearly payback for earlier. James shot him the most deadly of glares and Sirius merely turned his attention back to his eggs.

‘What’s this now? A girl?’ Mrs Potter’s attention was roused at this. Oh she wanted grandchildren more than she’d ever let on. If there was a chance she would get to meet them before she and her husband grew too old to hold them she would have been elated.

‘Not just a girl. She’s pretty as a veela. Isn’t she James?’ Sirius made the stupidest face he could muster. Puckering his lips together in a fish-like motion and fluttering his eye lashes while bringing a hand up to rest under his chin in a dreamy sense. All of the occupants of the table were now staring at the bespectacled boy. James looked at his father. He had certainly taken after him in the way of looks. His dad’s hair was still black in most places and quite full on his head which he took great pride in knowing he would inherit. He looked back to his mother, whose eyes she had passed onto him. She looked almost expectant. He just raised his fork and took a bite of his sausage.

‘Clearly this one’s useless, tell me more Sirius.’ Mrs Potter turned to Sirius. He laughed his bark-like laugh and James hurled a bit of egg at him.

‘We need new dress robes, Mum! Sluggy’s throwing another Christmas do and he want’s Sirius and I to attend.’ James retaliated.

‘Oh, well we can pop into Diagon Alley this afternoon. I could do a bit of shopping myself, what about you dear?’ Mr Potter nodded in agreement.

‘No, no! Don’t worry about me. You’ve both been far too kind as it is, I don’t need any.’ Sirius argued. He hated imposing on the Potter’s. He didn’t want to be any kind of trouble to them. He didn’t even want to go to Slughorn’s party.

‘Don’t be daft Sirius. We’ve got more than enough money to buy the both of you dress robes. Not to mention enough to take care of both James and yourself until you died of old age. And then some for your children, too. I won’t hear any more about you not wanting me buying you things. Give an old lady that at the very least. I’m not useful for much else.’ With that she stood up from her spot at the table and went to collect up the dishes. She was stopped by her husband however as he told her to give it a rest and that the men of the house would clean up from here.

*

As the Potter’s plus Black made their way through the dreary streets of Diagon Alley, averting the pop-up stalls and their claims of dark magic protection, James and Sirius wrestled each other playfully behind James’ parents. Mr Potter chuckled at their boisterous games while Mrs Potter seemed to be worrying over the state of everything around them. She fretted for her boys and put an end to their actions and hugged Sirius to herself and ordered James to walk with his father.

They stopped outside Twilfitt and Tatting’s, one of the few shops still trading, and Sirius made to protest but was only shoved inside by his surrogate mother. James laughed at him as they got inside and Sirius pushed him into nearby mannequin with such bored elegance it caused Mr Potter to snort at his son’s expense. As they browsed the options James started pulling out robes meant for the older generation of wizards and held them up to his form seeking Sirius’s approval.

‘The green ones would do wonders for your figure.’ Sirius nodded his approval and they started to talk to each other in a manner that resembled their headmaster while pulling more out and doing twirls and such for Mr Potter while Mrs Potter search in the younger section with honed determination. If there was one this Mrs Potter loved, it was shopping for James’s clothes. And she was doubly excited to have two boys to now shop for.

After they had actually tried on the old fashioned robes and paraded them around the store, much to the store owners’ abhorrence, they agreed on two vastly similar sets of smart looking black robes. The owner got to work immediately on making adjustments to the lengths so they fit the two boys perfectly. When they exited the shop Sirius lowered his head and thanked both Mr and Mrs Potter separately. He could have been a puppy with a tail between his legs but Mrs Potter didn’t even have a chance to tell him off before James groaned loudly to their left.

‘They’ve closed down quality quidditch supplies! I wanted to get a new broom compass. This is rubbish.’ James pouted. ‘This bloody war.’

‘James Potter. I did not just hear you compare your lack of a new broom compass to the lost lives of some dear witches and wizards?’ Mr Potter’s voice was low and James knew he was in trouble. His father was a gentle old man but he didn’t take kindly to his son being a brat. He rapped him upside the head with some of the supplies he’d purchased from Slug’s and Jigger’s Apothecary and James slumped down while Sirius sniggered at him. It wasn’t long before they were heading towards Gringotts and Mr Potter went in to make a withdrawal while the other three waited for him in the foyer.

‘Remind me again why we had to accept Slughorn’s invitation this year?’ Sirius asked staring down at the bag which held his new dress robes. ‘I was sure you said ‘let’s check it out, just this once’ last year. Did you not?’ Slughorn was the head of Slytherin house and not their favourite teacher. He favoured students in a way that Sirius didn’t agree with, and nor did James for that matter. He had always invited the two of them to the dinners he hosted and to the annual Christmas parties but the boys managed to make up quite a few excuses to get out of nearly all of them in their younger years.

Slughorn favoured Sirius a little more than James what with Sirius’ family being who they were, but he and James excelled at a lot of their subjects and were highly revered among their peers. Slughorn never missed an opportunity to try to get them into his club of favourites once he realised who they both were. It wasn’t until James had figured out Lily went along to a lot of his affairs that he decided he and Sirius should start accepting said offers.

‘Free food?’ James shrugged. Sirius contemplated it for a moment then replied with an ‘eh’ shrugging along.

‘We could always have fun with Snivelly when we’re there.’ Sirius contemplated and he saw a smile flash onto his best friends face.

‘I suppose we could. Wouldn’t want to give the old slime ball too much of a break. He might go soft on us.’ James agreed.

‘What are you two scheming about?’ Mrs Potter asked with an appraising eyebrow quirked as she caught the end of their conversation. She didn’t dismiss the looks on both their faces. She knew plotting when she saw it.

‘Nothing!’ They sang together and offered her the sweetest smiles they could muster. Even if they were planning something she couldn’t help herself and pat both their shoulders lovingly as Mr Potter re-joined them.

‘Open your hands.’ She directed to both of them and Sirius sighed knowing what was coming. ‘Shush you.’ She swatted him and gave both the boys a large handful of galleons from the supply Mr Potter had taken out. ‘I’m not having you two off at school with nothing to use at Hogsmeade. It’s bad enough that you came of age without us being able to have some kind of dinner or event for you last month Sirius.’ She nodded assertively ending the matter and ushered them out of the bank.

Sirius wasn’t one to be overly obnoxious about his birthday. Although they shared a passion for trouble Sirius was strikingly different from James (who very much did make a fuss over his birthday) when it came down to a lot of things. Sirius had always been an intelligent child and so when he was old enough to contemplate things on his own, he had begun to question his parents on many things. He was pampered as a young child and the heir of their household. His father Orion never sat down with him and his brother to play games with the boys, nor did his mother coddle them, but he was groomed to believe he had a much higher standing than other wizards. Regulus never much question it, but Sirius. Sirius began to question everything.

He used to question why he and his brother were ban from interacting with the muggle children around the neighbourhood of their London home. He used to question why their house elf wore tea towels and once tried to dress him but both Walburga and Kreacher hissed at that. He would question why his great, great aunt Isla was blasted off their family tapestry for marrying a muggle. He would question exactly what it was that made their family better than others and why being a pure-blood was so important. So many times his questions had been shot down or flat out refused an answer by both his mother and father that by the time he could read he took in just about anything he could about any other opinion on the wizarding world that wasn’t ‘because Sirius now stop asking such ridiculous questions.’

It didn’t take long for Sirius to come to terms with just how wrong his family’s values were. Values that he was raised with, values that were severely racist and essentially archaic. Values that placed him in a high regard in said family as their heir. He began to realise as he grew older that most of the ‘love’ bestowed by his parents onto him was merely because he was their first born. That he wasn’t special, he was just lucky. Anyone could be born first. Anyone could be born a Black. He wasn’t favoured because of any kind of abilities he had or anything of his own doing and he began to become aware just how conditional his parents ‘affections’ were.

What if he fell in love with a muggle? What if he was friends with a muggle-born? What if he didn’t carry on the Black name and never had a son? What would that make him to his family then? Watching the interactions between James’ parents and James were still so foreign to him. He very much enjoyed the wonderful kindness that they provided and it was a large part of the reason he had the courage to leave his childhood home behind. But he was still getting used to the idea that this was how parents should act to their children. Instead of pushing their supremacist ideologies onto a four year old, parents should provide them with unconditional love and support their choices.

As they made their way home from Diagon Alley, Sirius smiled happily as James hooked an arm around his neck and began discussing what they could do to infuriate Snape at the party. Sirius was kind of lost in his own mind as he agreed limply with everything James was saying. It had only been four months since he had dodged his mother’s curses after he called her out on a particularly bad dinner when he had become fed up with the venomous comments directed at him. Ever since he had been placed in Gryffindor and brought shame to the Nobel and Most Ancient House of Black he had been subjected to a very many things at the hands of mostly his blood-crazed elitist mother. His father wasn’t much better and his brother, well, they had barely spoken since.

He kept this all to himself though, not wanting to bring his friends down. He was happy now. Or at least he was learning to be happy. He was trying his very best to accept that he was allowed to be happy outside of Hogwarts. When they were safely back at the Potter residence and Sirius and James had sounded like a small stampede making their way up the stairs and into James room, Sirius started fiddling idly with some of the strewn quidditch paraphernalia around the place. By the time they had eaten and Sirius had made his way back to his new quarters he had noticed just how much time he had spent dwelling on his past.

He tried to think of something other than his mother screeching names after him or his father announcing that he was not to return if he left. He found his mind drifting to school. School had always been a safe haven for him. It gave him the freedom to think outside of his family’s box. He played up at school because it made the other children laugh and he adored laughter. It was everything his family was not. Bright, warm, happy, and loving.

He thought of the pranks they’d pulled over the last term and smiled. He thought of little prefect, Adams, finding them nearly every time. He thought of her nearly ripping her hair out trying to figure out what it was they had been up to while they were working on their map of the school and he let loose a laugh finding sleep coming to him much easier now.


	11. Sluggy's Christmas do

Aaliyah was thankful that she had made plans with Dirk Cresswell about meeting up in Diagon Alley before she had left platform nine and three quarters as owls weren’t really an option living half way across the world over the holidays. This was usually how she passed off never receiving letters from any friends to her parents. Dirk did live in London though, so the two had met up in the early evening and used the floo network to arrive at Hogsmeade where they were now getting one of the school carriages into Hogwarts together. Alone. Aaliyah was rather bored with his talk of, well, anything. Not wanting to be rude she smiled politely but never really added much to the conversation.

Dirk seemed to hesitate over his words and fidget a lot. Much like any of the boys in her year while they spoke to her, other than her cousin Nay. She never really understood it, but she missed a lot of social cues with her limp regard towards the opposite sex and general disdain to girls that gushed over them. She realised Dirk was asking her a question and quickly supplied him with a one worded answer. She had never been happier to see their caretaker as Hogwarts entrance came into view and he stood by the door on guard. Filch stared at them with his bottom lip unturned as they passed him to enter the castle.

When they arrived there was already a fair amount of people inside Slughorn’s office to which he had transformed for the occasion as he usually did. There were a lot of spectacular greens and gold’s accentuating the room as well as ambient lighting and all manner of magical things floating about. Aaliyah's favourite always being the presence of the fairies that hung around the lighting. Slughorn’s prized guest this year seemed to be Barnabas Cuffe who had just taken over the editor-in-chief position at the Daily Prophet. Slughorn seemed to be deep in conversation with him and so the two new arrivals just made their way inside.

‘Would you like a drink?’ Dirk volunteered to which Aaliyah accepted and he wandered off to find a house elf. As she glanced around the room she recognised most of the students from previous Christmas parties. Snape was standing in a corner close to Slughorn with Regulus Black but they didn’t seem to be talking to each other at all so much as keeping each other company. From the look of the younger, haughty looking boy, Regulus seemed to be holding himself back from something. Aaliyah followed to where his eyes were situated and saw his brother standing alone, gazing uninterestedly around at the room and its occupants. Ali found it curious to see Sirius alone.

‘Oh, thank god.’ Aaliyah’s attention was turned to Lily as she grabbed onto her arm and sighed. ‘Do yourself a favour and never ask an older guy to accompany you to one of these things, Adams. I’m lucky to have gotten away unscathed.’ Ali just stared down slightly confused to where Lily was clutching onto her, hunched over.

‘Isn’t Potter younger than you?’ Lily fixed her with a stern look at that remark.

‘I did not come with Potter.’ She quickly fixed her brown dress and glanced around. ‘Did you arrive with Dirk Cresswell?’ Lily enquired scanning the room and finding him at the drinks station.

‘Yeah. Merlin, what a boring guy.’ She shook her head as they both watched him for a moment. When Aaliyah found herself glancing back to where Sirius was she saw James joining him, stowing away his wand. He whispered something to Sirius and the two began laughing amongst themselves. She assumed when they weren’t joined at the hip it would be because James was after Lily but instead it was James’ second favourite thing occupying his time. Trouble.

‘He’s done something. I know it.’ Ali sighed watching as James and Sirius let their laughter die and turned their attention over to the corner where Snape was now alone.

‘Potter!’ Lily yelled loud enough for both the boys to hear. ‘Don’t you dare.’ She pointed an accusing finger towards him and James raised his hands in innocence. He gave her a wink and turned back to Sirius. ‘So what’s wrong with Cresswell?’ Lily turned back to Aaliyah after glancing around the room to make sure her date wasn’t nearby. The party was filling up quickly. There was fairly enjoyable music coming from one of the corners and everyone seemed to be at least enjoying themselves.

‘All he does is stutter and stare at his fidgeting hands. Do all boys do that?’ Aaliyah asked still keeping an eye on Dirk. She was socially inept but she wasn’t cruel and didn’t want him to stumble in on their conversation about his personality shortcomings.

Lily laughed, ‘I suppose he’s intimidated by you, Adams. You’re not the most amicable of girls. Had you not become a prefect I honestly doubt we would be speaking right now.’ Aaliyah wasn’t quite sure how to take Lily’s words.

‘But how am I intimidating?’ She made a face. ‘I don’t find unpopular, quiet students to be the intimidating sort?’ Her question was left unanswered however when both Dirk Cresswell and Bertram Aubrey joined them. Bertram Aubrey was a burley seventh year Ravenclaw student that stood at least a head over Lily. Dirk handed Ali a drink and said a polite hello to Lily and Bertram.

‘Bloody, Potter.’ These were the only words Bertram offered in reply. ‘He bloody hexed me.’ He sneezed once more from the remains of the Steleus hex and Lily looked as if she were trying not to laugh. Bertram itched his nose then looked at Lily, Dirk, and Ali expectantly.

‘Well? Aren’t all three of you prefects? Can’t you tell him off?’ All three of the Gryffindor prefects stared at him for a moment. Lily just shrugged.

‘It’s not really our place over the holidays. Sorry.’ This was of course entirely untrue. But Lily couldn’t tell James off for something she didn’t really find to be all that bad. Bertram was positively horrid. She would never have said yes to him usually but when he’d asked her to pair up with him to the party, James had been decidedly absent with whatever it was occupying the four boys before the holidays. She had agreed for no other reason besides feeling a little less like a commodity than usual. She had never regretted anything more. All Bertram seemed to be able to do was talk about himself.

‘Should we have done something?’ Dirk whispered to Aaliyah who shook her head taking a sip of the drink he had supplied her with.

‘No. I think he might have deserved it.’ The two usually quiet prefects watched as Bertram started up a conversation about himself again to Lily. She was too kind a girl to tell him off and seemed to be trapped. For a while it gave Aaliyah and Dirk something to laugh about. As the night progressed Dirk seemed to relax a little with Aaliyah and they stood together most of the party looking around at their peers and amusing themselves by judging a few of the more flamboyantly dressed individuals. Lily tried to cling to the two of them the best she could but Bertram would try and lead her off from time to time.

Ali found herself looking over at Sirius a fair amount, to keep him in check of course. It would be just like he and James to turn a Christmas party into a disaster. She could see the appeal as to why Slughorn wanted to recruit the boys into his little club, they were both highly talented in a fair many areas. James was fantastic at quidditch and Sirius seemed to pass nearly all his classes with jaded ease. They were both purebloods, not that Slughorn seemed to fixate on the idea of blood purity, but pureblood families were always quite connected in the wizarding world. But the boys had always turned down the potions master’s invitation, she thought he would have given up.

‘Excuse me for a bit, Cresswell?’ Dirk nodded to Ali as she left his side and made her way over to where James and Sirius were whispering and not taking their eyes off Snape. ‘Stop it.’ She bit out to the boys as soon as she approached them and Sirius and James jumped a little.

‘Why, stop what, Adams? We’re being very good tonight.’ James smiled sweetly but Aaliyah’s expression reminded unchanged.

‘Stop plotting. I have spent four months chasing after the two of you. I know a plan forming when I see it now.’ Aaliyah broke eye contact immediately with Sirius when she realised how intently his eyes were fixed on her.

‘You know, I reckon she’s getting almost as good as Mum at reading us, Padfoot.’ James was nodding in an almost approving way but Sirius grinned.

‘She doesn’t have to try, if she wanted to read me all she had to do was ask.’ Aaliyah looked up to fix him with a glare but Sirius was supplying her with one of his cheesy grins. She felt herself falter as her father’s face flashed into her head. When she didn’t ark up at his comment Sirius’s face morphed slightly into one of minor concern. ‘You alright, Adams?’ He asked but James interrupted them stridently.

‘Wait. Where’s Evans? That blockhead’s kidnapped her!’ James was searching every corner he could with his eyes for Lily but she and Bertram seemed to be nowhere in sight. ‘I’ll bloody kill him!’ James stormed off and Sirius wasn’t far behind him.

‘Happy Christmas Aaliyah.’ She spoke to herself with a sigh and chased along behind the two imps, out of Slughorn’s office and into the corridors of the dungeons. They were awarded almost instantly with the sight of Lily and Bertram. Bertram had himself towering over Lily’s much smaller form, up against a wall a little further down the corridor. She seemed to be protesting and James visibly puffed up.

Sirius grabbed him as Aaliyah joined them. ‘Hey, just give it a minute mate. She’s not some dainty dame. She can hold her own.’ Sirius nodded his head back in their direction to where Lily had now pushed Bertram backwards.

‘You are filth, Aubrey. Utter filth. Do you speak to your mother with that mouth? Get away from me!’ She shouted and Bertram contested.

‘What are you? Some kind of weirdo that doesn’t like guys?’ He was turning his face up at her and she rounded on him.

‘If I preferred the company of women it would be a severe improvement on what is offering itself to me at present, I can tell you that much you stupid prat.’ And when Bertram made to grab at her Lily raised her hand and slapped him so hard the sound reverberated down the corridor loudly enough to create an echo. James was beaming like a proud dad while Sirius just leant against the wall behind them with a knowing look. He knew Evans could hold her own after spending the past year beating James off with a stick. Not that the advances James made came anywhere close to the horrible display at hand, but Lily was a strong young woman despite her well known kindness.

‘Stupid mudblood.’ Bertram spat after her as he rubbed his face and the triumphant look on Lily’s died instantly. James’s look of adoration faded and was replaced with something much more menacing and he turned to Aaliyah.

‘Adams. Could you escort Evans back inside and get her a drink? I’d like to have a talk to Aubrey.’ Sirius had abandoned his apathetic demeanour by the wall and was standing tall beside James now. Lily spotted them and her cheeks flushed red. She didn’t make any attempt to say anything in rebuttal to Bertram’s words but instead made her way over to Aaliyah.

‘Boys… you know I can’t just let you-'

‘Then help Evans.’ Sirius looked sideways at her. ‘You’re a prefect. There’s a student that needs help with her nerves.’ He winked and followed after James who was already making his way over to where Bertram was standing. Just this once she decided to overlook the rules. Ali hated the word mudblood. It was disgusting. People could not help who they were born to, nor should it have been seen as a bad thing. Ali always revered the muggle-born children at school. They came by their magic all on their own. How amazing was that! She was born to two long standing wizard lines and therefore it was no surprise that she had magical blood. Being born to muggles and being magical was perfectly wonderful in her opinion.

She scooped Lily inside when she didn’t say anything to her and led her over to where Dirk was standing with a Hufflepuff boy named Adrian. He was in Lily’s year and had a camera in his hands. Dirk quickly picked up on the negative signals and offered up his help to which Ali asked him to get Lily something to drink.

‘I’m fine, Adams.’ Lily offered with a smile.

‘What a horrible little tosser.’ Ali scrunched her nose up at the thought of what had just transpired.

‘Adams!’ Lily chastised at her use of words. Ali ignored her and looked around the room to see if Sirius and James had returned. Merlin only knew what they could have been up to. The only person that seemed to stand out to her was Regulus, who was standing by a Slytherin boy in the grade below them, Bartemius Crouch. Regulus was watching their group with the same seemingly bored expression his older brother usually adopted. She didn’t pay much attention to them.

‘We should probably go and check on them.’ Lily spoke up as Dirk returned with a glass of punch for her.

‘Actually. I think we’re tied up here at the moment. Don’t you Cresswell?’ Ali asked innocently. Dirk gave her a light, polite smile and nodded.

‘Look. Black over there looks shady. I’m not moving from this spot for at least… three more minutes.’ Aaliyah nodded a confirmation fixing her attention on Regulus who looked to be very far away from any kind of trouble. Dirk laughed a little and Lily seemed to warm up at that.

‘This has to be the first time a Ravenclaw is turning my stomach more than a Slytherin.’ Lily decided and took a sip of her punch. She blanched afterwards. ‘My god, what is in this?’

‘I saw Black and Potter hovering around it an hour ago.’ Adrian spoke up clutching his camera. ‘I do believe they poured a fair amount of something in there. To ‘liven the party up’ as I recall.’ Adrian was a very timid guy it seemed. Lily and Aaliyah both sighed knowingly.

‘Of course they did.’ They said in perfect unison.

‘Stay with her will you?’ Ali requested and Dirk agreed. She thought she could probably ask Dirk to cut himself and supply her with some of his own blood for a questionable ritual and he might have still agreed. Boys were funny. She left the small group they had made and decided it was time to intervene on whatever it was the boys were doing to Bertram. When she made it out into the corridor though they were nowhere in sight. It wasn’t hard to figure out where they had gone however as she heard voices coming from the staircases.

One of the voices turned from something barely over talking level to all out shouting and Ali headed off in their direction hoping she was the only one around to hear it. The voice she realised belonged to Bertram was silenced before she had gotten any closer.

‘Oh deary me Aubrey, did you happen to lose your voice and your wand?’ James’ voice came into earshot.

‘Pity. I’ve been told they’re rather useful in these kinds of situations.’ Sirius now.

‘Oh whoops, did that jelly-leg jinx hit you?’

‘Prongs old boy, you’ll want to be more careful where you point that. So sorry Aubrey. Here.’ She noticed a flash of light signalling something that was most certainly not the counter-jinx. She rolled her eyes dawdling along.

‘No, no Padfoot you silly old dog. That wasn’t the counter-jinx. That was an instant scalping hex.’

‘Oh, my. How very clumsy of me. Prongs you better give it a go.’

‘Oh, I think I know. Engorgio Skullus.’ At this point now even Sirius had left his adopted manner of insolence behind and barked out a laugh.

‘You two blighters are at it again!’ Aaliyah made a run for it to reach the boys in time as she heard Filch’s voice join in with the other two. The scene she discovered nearly made her falter in her ‘prefect resolve’ and she managed to reach them with just seconds to spare.

‘Sirius Black! James Potter!’ She called out and Filch came up short as he realised he wasn’t the first one to find them. Sirius and James both turned their attention to her, hiding their wands behind their backs. Aaliyah didn’t know how long she could hold in her laughter. Bertram looked ridiculous. The boys had cast a silencing charm on him so he was trying to yell but there were no words coming from his mouth. All the hair was completely gone from his head. His head was at least twice the size that it should be and he seemed to be having a very hard time keeping it up. He was actually using his hands to balance it.

‘It's fine, Filch, I can handle this.’ Aaliyah offered as he made an attempt to start yelling.

‘These students need to be punished! They’re nothing but a nuisance!’ He pointed to the two boys almost as if he were a child tattling to his mother.

‘You’re absolutely right, Filch. Detention. Both of you.’ She nodded to them confirming it. James and Sirius just shared a look between them.

‘Double detention!’ Filch argued.

‘Yes of course! You’re right again!’ She humoured him. ‘How could I have gone so easy? Yes, yes. Double detentions boys. Served with me. I have it on McGonagall’s orders to do so.’ She looked over at Filch. He seemed disappointed. He was a very sadistic old squib and his love of dishing out detentions did not go unnoticed. But after hearing the part about McGonagall he seemed to give in.

‘Fine. Rotten little snotters. I’ll be documenting this.’ His usually unhappy face was no different now as he looked down at Bertram whose head had gotten the better of him while they had been speaking and was now in a very peculiar position. His face was against the floor while his body was still trying desperately to stand. Aaliyah made her way over to him and ‘accidently’ lost her footing, kicking him as she went.

‘Oh. Sorry, Aubrey. Could you, er, take Aubrey to the hospital wing please, Filch? I’ll deal with the boys.’ She continued to make her way over to Sirius and James who both seemed very interested by her display. Filch watched her as she went and for added measure, she grabbed both the boys by their ears and dragged them back towards the dungeons complaining loudly in her wake.

‘Dammit, Adams that hurts!’ Sirius yelped as she twisted them down the stairs and out of earshot of Filch. James was laughing, not even bothering to care about his ear.

‘Oh, Adams. The accidental wallop to the head was golden.’ She just smiled at him.

‘I don’t think I know what you’re talking about, Potter.’ She acted aloof. ‘Uh, you will have to serve those detentions. I thought you’d prefer them with me over Filch.’ She offered. She wasn’t usually so soft, but Lily was too nice a girl not to have someone standing up for her after such a nasty encounter.

‘Is Evans okay?’ James seemed to snap back out of his casual mirth.

‘Merlin Potter, she’s fine. Why don’t you go and check, I left her with Cresswell.’ She had barely finished her sentence before James was off, striding back into Slughorn’s office. It wasn’t until the last part of his black dress robes had disappeared around the doorframe that she realised she was alone with Sirius. She whipped around to face him and he was standing there rather relaxed, staring at her.

‘What are you looking at Black?’ She spat as his eyes scanned her up and down. He jumped at her voice and shook his head. ‘Get in there. Go save Potter, Evans is probably going to hex him worse than Aubrey if she finds out what he did.’ Sirius didn’t speak a word. He just nodded with a sly smile and walked lazily in before her as she followed close behind.


	12. Pity party in the library

Since the Christmas holidays it hadn’t taken long for everyone to fall back into their old habits. They were now well into their new term, but the night of the Christmas party saw two changes in the student body. One being that Lily Evans seemed to be yelling at James Potter decidedly less than she usually did, although she seemed to be hexing him more when he would yell out to her through crowds of students. James seemed to only really ask her out in the more embarrassing of times, like when there were a lot of people around.

The second change was in Sirius Black who seemed to be getting caught for his misdeeds even more than usual. A lot of the time without his brother in crime which was the strangest adjustment of all. As the second term came and was already close to over, Aaliyah had had to supervise more than two dozen of Sirius’s detentions herself. She had begun to realise why McGonagall had gotten fed up. Ali was drawing blanks as to what to make him even do anymore. She was found looking out for literally anything that could be used in a detention fashion more than she had her head in a book these days.

‘I could make him write lines. McGonagall does that. Doesn’t she? Do lines annoy you?’ A fair amount of Ali’s curls were sticking up at funny angles on her head and her ponytail was a bushy mess compared to its usual tamed status. Remus was surveying her from the other end of their table in the library cautiously. His new friend seemed to be losing the plot almost weekly these days.

‘Uh, yes. They’re tedious. Maybe you could make him write them in his own blood?’ Remus laughed a little at his joke but when he looked at Ali she seemed to be contemplating it. ‘Ali!’ He reprimanded and she shook her head.

‘You’re right. That would probably only turn him on or something.’ She bit her lip letting ink drop from her quill down onto her Arithmancy homework. Remus had been joining the younger prefect at her chosen table in the library for months now when he could spare the time. It wasn’t all that often. He was probably in the hospital wing more. But he did try and she was almost always there. The first time he had done so was in an attempt to keep himself on track with classes before the full moon and when they had spoken she was so kind to him he wasn’t sure how to respond.

He didn’t want to admit it, but he had taken pity on her that day and offered her to join him at dinner. She had declined due to her seeming hatred of Sirius. A lot of the Gryffindor students at their school would moan and complain when Sirius and James depleted their house points regularly, but it was well known that they all still relished in their jokes. Sirius and James were pretty much the height of cool at Hogwarts. So when Aaliyah had outwardly claimed to detest Sirius, Remus’s interest mounted.

He thought maybe she might have had a crush on him and was playing it down with a façade of malice. But if the past few months was a testament to her feelings she most certainly would have rather kicked him up the behind rather than snog him. But as Remus had come to understand from their scattered times together Ali wasn’t really like other students. She seemed to have a rolling repute with their teachers, who all rather liked her. But she was quite blank when it came to most of their peers. Her lack of friends was what drove Remus to actively begin seeking her out and spending time with her. Had he not been placed in a dorm with James, Sirius and Peter he might very well have been the same.

Remus made a point to distance himself from anyone that weren’t Sirius, James and Peter as a rule. Back when the boys had collectively figured out his secret towards the end of their first year he was, for lack of a better word, shocked at their reaction. Wicked mate. Were James’s exact words. Sirius seemed to levitate towards him in what he supposed was a middle finger to his parents and Peter was just desperate to be a part at that point. He was quite sure he had found the only three boys that would have accepted him and he was thankful for them every day since.

Aaliyah might not have been a monster in the same sense as him, but she was certainly a tyrant when it came to school rules. She’d even told him off a handful of times for the seriously minor offences he’d been caught for with his friends lately. Like laughing too much in class at what James and Sirius were writing in the notes they were passing back and forth. Something he thought didn’t really merit a detention but served it all the same. Ali had told him off for it and he just smiled and took the lecture without complaint. He always felt when a lecture came his way, he deserved it. Even when he probably didn’t. It was in his nature to feel as if anything wrong was his fault.

He didn’t want to admit it, but he seemed to be taking pity on the young girl still. Not that she wasn’t good company, usually they sat in a sweet silence together and worked on homework. He had seen a rise in his grades with her help, which was something he didn’t feel worthy of. Here he was feeling sorry for her and she was nice enough to help him with his papers and practice spells that were beyond her by a year. He would have felt a lot worse if she didn’t seem to enjoy it so much. He was sure if she had been a boy she would most certainly have gotten a hard on for school work. He found her quite fascinating at times.

‘You know when I caught him yesterday, he used a jinx on a second year in front of my face. What the hell, Remus? Does he literally have no regard for the school rules?’ She was trying to wipe up an ink spot now from the desk. Her hair was coming undone and her long curls falling all around her. She was a pretty girl. If she didn’t constantly have a sour look on her face he thought she probably would have the same kind of following Sirius had. But she was such a do-gooder she seemed to avert the masses.

‘Just like that. Sees me coming down the bloody corridor and bam “oh excuse me, I’m Sirius Snotnose Black. I have a reputation to uphold. Please submit yourself for torture.” I should ask McGonagall for permission to hex him right back.’ Remus couldn’t bring himself to speak ill of his friends and so he just nodded as she spoke, allowing her to vent.

‘How is he so bloody fabulous at everything he does? "I pay attention in class." What a bragger.’ She seemed to be muttering to herself now more than to him. ‘I hope he fails his NEWTS and gets put back a year. Poxy little bas- oh, merlin no. Then I’d have to spend classes with him- Remus go and help him study! He cannot fail!’ She stood up from her place at the desk knocking her chair over in the process and Madam Pince was there in no time flat hissing at the two and flipping her feather duster in their faces.

‘I’m so sorry, Irma. Won’t happen again.’ As soon as the young librarian had vanished Remus started laughing at Ali and her cheeks flushed pink from embarrassment. She started muttering something about upsetting her oldest friend at the school in what was probably meant in a joking fashion but Remus felt a pang of guilt for her and went quiet.

‘Ah, anyway. I have to go Remus. I have to supervise a detention for Mulciber, Wilkes and Avery.’ The look on her face spoke more than any amount of words could. Remus had come to learn that Ali seemed to be able to convey a lot with just looks. Her face seemed to rest in an upturned lazy disdainful manner, but when she abandon her usual monotonous look, her expressions spoke legions.

‘What did they do?’ He enquired attentively. Not that it would have taken long to guess. They were among some of the most cringe worthy students at Hogwarts. Mulciber and Avery had been caught more than once practicing variations of dark magic on students. It was a wonder they were still here at all.

‘Nothing major. I just caught them out past curfew. They were sulking around last Saturday night when I was doing your patrol for you.’ She sighed. ‘To think if you’re immune system was better it would be you trapped with them.’

‘For once I have to say I’m actually happy to have been sick.’ He grinned. ‘What do you think they were doing all out of bed that late together?’

‘I don’t know. It was the Saturday just gone. People at this school seem to entertain the ideas of social lives. I don’t really get it, but they do.’ She was furrowing her brows as she packed up her things. To Ali it would have seemed like she had simply busted some students out of bed. But that night was a full moon. The night Remus was taken down to the whomping willow by their matron. A thought struck him.

‘Snape wasn’t with them?’ It was becoming more and more clear to Remus that Snape seemed to be targeting him.

‘Not that I saw. But I mean he’s never very far from them these days now that Evans gave him the boot. I probably should have had a better look around.’ Remus realised there wasn’t really a whole lot keeping him in the library besides Ali and so began packing up with her, offering to walk her to the dungeons where she would be supervising the boys as they scrubbed out cauldrons.

As they were exiting the library they were met with a familiar face. ‘Hullo.’ Sirius sung as he joined the two of them. ‘Fancy meeting you two here. Like, honestly, what are the chances?’

‘Yes. Very strange phenomenon, indeed.’ Remus eyed his friend off but shared a smirk with him all the same. They had successfully managed to pull off creating their map in February last month and Sirius had been hoarding it like a proud father ever since. They thought they had met their match in a plan too big for even their misdoings but with Remus’s book smarts, James and Sirius’s natural talents, and Peter bringing them snacks, it took the four of them a little over three months to complete. Once it was done it was far better than any of them could have imagined.

Remus’s wary look towards Sirius wasn’t for his obvious personal joke though. Since he had begun looking after Aaliyah in his spare moments, he had noticed Sirius taking a more active approach towards her also. He riled her up so easily and he seemed to bathe in the emotions he elicited from her. Mostly she just yelled at him and he would laugh. Remus turned a blind eye to almost every little thing his friends did because they accepted him. The situation at present wasn’t any different, but he felt an almost brotherly kind of protectiveness come out when Sirius teased her too much.

Remus heard a strange noise from his right side and when he turned to Ali she seemed to be grinding her teeth together in silence, nostrils flared, face deadpan.

‘What were you two kids up to?’ As Sirius spoke he casually dropped back from where they were walking to pull up between the two and wrapped his arms around both their shoulders. ‘Reading up on how to become less of a nerd? You seem to still have a ways to go guys. Sorry.’ He finished and before Remus could protest for Sirius’s sake, Ali spoke up.

‘Black have you been studying?’ She asked, pushing his arm off of her probably more viciously than was necessary.

‘Uh, no. I’m not as committed to spending all of my free time in the library as some.’ He was pushing her buttons. He honestly didn’t need to try to do it, but he was. Remus would have been upset but… it was slightly entertaining. He hated to admit it, but she was funny when she was mad. Her upper lip would twitch and her eyes would relax into a state that could have been bottled and sold in one of the pop-up stalls in Diagon Alley to repel dark magic. He knew he should have spoken up and told Sirius off but he could never bring himself to do so.

‘Go and STUDY!’ She turned on the spot to yell this at him and then flicked back around, her hair smacking him in the face. ‘If you fail I’ll make it my personal mission to make sure you live in detention. Remus go with him. The stupid Slytherin trio are child’s play compared to you four.’ And with that she was off, down the stairs and out of sight before either of them could form a rebuttal.

Remus just looked at Sirius and shook his head. Sirius was about to complain about the look he was receiving but seemed to remember why he had come down to find Remus in the first place.

‘Anyway. Come on, Pete is waiting for us.’ With his arms still around his friends shoulder he led Remus off in the direction Ali had just disappeared to. Remus was starting to wonder what kind of trouble he was about to get himself into as they rounded the first floor corridor and Peter came into view. But they came to an abrupt stop when they saw none other than Snape standing with him.

‘Ah, n-no.’ Peter was shaking his head at Snape who was coming into his personal space like it was his birth right. Peter, who had progressed so far since his first year when all he could do was stutter and laugh in the boys’ presence, was stuttering again. Why? Remus saw Sirius digging in his robes for his wand and Remus, this time, thought it best to do the same.

‘Oy!’ Sirius bellowed and Snape retracted from their friend like a spider when its web was touched. He wheeled around to defend himself but Sirius had already flicked his wand and the books in Snape’s bag all came roaring to life and advanced on him. Peter ran from the scene and Sirius bent over laughing as Snape fell over backwards due to the assailing books.

‘Are you alright?’ Remus asked Peter as he join the two. Peter just nodded and Remus made quick work of the counter-jinx as all Snape’s book fell limp around him.

‘Ah, Moony! You’re no fun anymore.’ Sirius watched as Snape stood up in a flurry of robes and greasy hair swinging around him.

‘You- You-' Snape started looking for his wand, he seemed to have dropped it in the heat of the moment as the books attacked.

‘I? I? What Snivelly? I made you soil yourself? I am everything you hope to be? Well sorry but the feeling is far from mutual.’ Sirius had his wand clutched and ready as he took a step in front of Remus and Peter, blocking them from Snape’s view.

‘You’re insufferable! Do you know what awaits blood traitors like you Black?’ He spat the word so venomously trying and failing to make himself taller once his wand was safely in his hand again. ‘The only thing that will be greeting you after you graduate is a flash of green light. The Dark Lord will make quick work of you especially!’

‘Snivelly I reckon your crush on Voldemort is getting out of hand. Does he know you sent him flowers on Valentine’s Day again this year?’ Remus only winced at the mention of the name as Sirius spoke it. Snape and Peter both made verbal complaints.

‘Your brother’s an idiot to think anything of you.’ As soon as the words had left Snape’s mouth he narrowly missed a jet a red light.

‘What did you say about my brother?!’ Sirius shouted after him but Snape just scurried off to safety as Remus grabbed hold of Sirius.

‘Hey, let it go. He’s not worth it.’ Remus appeased. Sirius was such a fiercely loyal creature and Snape, who had been he and James’ rival for six years now, knew it. He knew how to infuriate Sirius and he played it to his benefit whenever possible.

‘My brother might be an idiot, but he’s a far-sight better than that greasy git.’ Sirius spat fixing his robes up and pushing Remus off of him. ‘What was he saying to you Wormtail?’ Peter squeaked in fright at Sirius’s abrupt turn of attention on him.

‘Ah, n-nothing really. He was asking about-' He looked at Remus and Remus sighed. He was asking Peter about himself again. Ever since last year when James had been torturing Snape to entertain Sirius after one of their exams, Snape had taken a much more active approach to wanting to get the boys in trouble. James and Sirius were a much harder pair to get to, as they didn’t think twice when it came to hexing him. He and Peter on the other hand were much easier targets. Remus seemed to be coping the brunt of it however as Peter was usually close by to either Sirius or James. Remus was the weak link. Remus was always the weak link.

‘Sorry.’ He turned his attention to the floor where he felt it belonged. Sirius just smacked his back hard enough that he flung forwards a few steps.

‘Don’t be a martyr Moony. This just gives us a reason to hex him in the corridors.’ When he looked up to the two, Sirius was grinning at him and Peter was looking between Sirius and himself, smiling timidly.

‘We were going to put dungbombs in the transfiguration classroom for McGonagall’s first year class tomorrow.’ Peter hitched his bag up on his shoulder indicating they were inside. Remus felt a voice inside him that sounded strikingly alike to Ali’s protest. He was a prefect, chosen by McGonagall herself! He really shouldn’t. But looking at the two friends before him, the two friends who had just stuck up for him. One who had be cornered because of him. One that readily came to his aid any time he needed it. Two boys that knew he was a monster, but accepted him all the same. How could he deny them?

‘Yeah, alright. I suppose I could stand guard while you two slipped inside.’ He allowed himself to smile and chuckle at the round of applause the boys ignited into. They grabbed him and made their way to the classroom in question. Once the bombs were planted expertly around the room they made their way out but the three of them halted as Peeves floated by, a wicked smile on his face.

‘Looney loopy Lupin, disgracing the preffie name. What would dear old Gonnie have to say about this?’ He was grinning widely floating back and forth.

‘Peeves we were going to ask if you’d do us the honour of setting them off in the morning.’ Sirius quipped. He and James seemed to be the only ones that could tame the poltergeist into any other frame of mind than simply torturing the students without relent. Peeves’ interest was captured at this and he gave Sirius a grand look of approval.

‘Well, why didn’t you say so bitty witty Black? If it’s an instigator for mischief you need, Peeves is at your service!’ His words were fleeting though as his departure saw him make a point of dousing an ink pot from Peter’s bag over both Remus and Peter’s heads, cackling as he zoomed away. Sirius couldn’t help the look he gave the boys as they screeched when the ink hit them and began trailing down the hair, faces and dripped onto their robes.

‘Why did you miss it?’ Peter accused, pointing a finger at Sirius. Sirius just shrugged watching as Remus dug in his pockets for his wand.

‘Come here, Wormtail.’ Remus spoke, using the scouring charm on him first. It wasn’t something Remus actively thought about, nor was it that he thought Peter in particular deserved to come before himself in any way. It was that Remus, a boy that had a childhood filled with monthly transitions into a monster that racked his parents with shame and fear, believed that everyone came before himself. As he made quick work of Peter and then himself and the boys straightened up.

‘Come on, let’s go see how Prongs is doing with running a quidditch team. I’m sure we can make fun of him somehow.’ There was a glint in Sirius’s grey eyes as he took off and Peter was close behind him. Remus just readjusted his bag on his shoulder and followed along happily. As they made their way out of the castle and onto the grounds they passed Mary Macdonald and Marlene McKinnon. Remus felt his cheeks heat up very slightly when he caught Marlene’s eyes.

She smiled at him like she always did. Mary, Marlene and Lily were always quite nice to him. But more recently he felt a certain pull towards the outspoken blonde. They came and went just as quickly and Remus was rewarded with a hard elbow in his ribs.

‘Bet you’re an absolute wolf in the sack Moony, why don’t you give it a go?’ Sirius goaded and Peter was snickering beside them.

‘Shut up Padfoot.’ Remus looked down and continued on to the quidditch pitch. If there was one thing Remus could not allow himself, it was to willingly dump his problems on someone else. To think of actually being in any kind of a relationship with anyone, knowing what he was, was unfathomable. Or at least, to think anyone would want to be in a relationship with him was unfathomable. No girl in their right mind would want him. He didn’t even bother with the notion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just going to let you know that I could probably write a five thousand word thesis on the reasons why I believe 'The Prince's Tale' chapter is possibly the worst chapter for continuity. The fact that James saving Snape supposedly came before the lake scene is completely ludicrous to me. It's one of the very few things in the HP canon world that makes me rant. (I still worship Jo, though.) And so I will not be following it in this fic, and will be changing canon things to fit around it. Just a heads up. I wont go into the reasons any further lest I be here for days.


	13. Red team versus the yellow guys

‘Replacing rare ingredients in the potions storerooms with Zonko’s products. Telling first years that there were going to be zombies in the next care of magical creature’s class. Commissioning Peeve’s to follow Filch around with a whistle so students knew where he was. Changing all the soaps in the bathrooms to frog spawn. Transfiguring three ancient suits of armour into naked sculptures. Letting lose a box of Cornish Pixies in Greenhouse Three. I don’t even want to know where you got those. Somehow managing to make it seem as if a dragon was descending on the great hall through the ceiling at dinner. Getting caught out of bed no less than three times. Rabastan Lestrange still cannot grow parts of his hair back. Barty Crouch is asking you be expelled for hanging him upside down for thirty minutes before anyone found him. Am I missing anything!?’ Ali had lost count on her fingers by this point as Sirius sat, sorting through the potions ingredients he had meddled with in the dungeon class room.

He smirked over at her, ‘Barricading the astronomy tower so none of the students could get in on Wednesday night.’

‘That was you!?’ She stood up instantly from where she had been lazily sitting on a desk.

‘Oh. Certainly not.’ He acted very serious now, pulling some ingredients up to his face casually and deciding whether or not they were salvageable.

‘Breathe Ali.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I didn’t hear that. I don’t have to give him a detention if I didn’t hear it.’ She spoke quietly to herself, rubbing her temples and turning her face up to the celling with her eyes shut tight. This was the second detention she had to supervise this week for Sirius. He seemed to think it most amusing. Ali was wondering why the teachers put up with him at all?

‘I just really enjoy our time together Adams.’ Sirius breathed out fluidly, chucking some lacewing fly aside and relabelling the newt’s eyeballs.

‘I want to avada kedavra myself.’ Ali sighed sitting back on her desk and surveying Sirius to make sure he was doing as he was supposed to. Although, he always seemed to be most compliant during their detentions together.

‘Don’t say such things Adams. How would I get any entertainment around here without you to yell at me?’ Sirius asked looking over at the tired prefect. Her face was deadpan and devoid of any kind of emotion. Even the usual scowl that seemed to be second nature in his presence.

‘Maybe you could torture someone else for a change?’ She whined, her face turning even limper and her head falling towards her shoulder pathetically. Even though it was a Saturday morning she had on her school uniform to supervise the detention. Sirius had opted for a more casual attire, but had on a Gryffindor scarf as today was their match against Hufflepuff.

‘Nah. You’re much more interesting.’

‘I’m saddened by that opinion more than you know.’ She produced in a monotone and lay back on the desk. She didn’t even have her books with her. She could barely concentrate on anything in these detentions. Between her, what seemed to be obsession with admiring Sirius’s body, something she would have stopped if she could. And him trying to hold lazy conversations with her through the work she had him undertake, books were apparently out of her reach.

Sirius laughed at her lightly. She made no reaction to it, trying to pretend she was sleeping now. Maybe that would thwart him from speaking to her?

‘So Adams,’ Ali sighed. Clearly she was mistaken. ‘Are you coming to the match? Going to support your team?’

‘You won’t be getting to the match the way you’re going Black.’ She spat neither opening her eyes nor sitting up. At least she felt somewhat relaxed right now. The desk was hard, but maybe it was doing her back some good?

‘I can’t miss the match Adam’s! I’m commentating!’ Sirius whined. This made Ali smile. Anything that seemed to annoy him in any way made her smile.

‘Well. I suppose they’ll have to get Stebbin’s to do it.’

‘Stebbin’s is rubbish. I, on the other hand, am a charismatic god of narration. I shall be scouted and asked to speak at the world cup, just you wait.’

‘Oh shut up Black. All you do is make the crowd laugh at your unfailing stupidity.’ Ali was picking out crud from under her nails now and trying her very best not to peer over at Sirius.

‘So you have been to a game then?’

Damn it. Defeated! Ali had to sweep that under the rug before he started making insinuations towards the fact that the only reason she ever made it down to a game was to hear him commentate it. Oh it was such a Sirius Black thing to say.

‘Why would I bother with quidditch Black? I don’t play it. I don’t have friends that play it. I have no interest in it at all. You know nothing.’ Her eyes veered away from her nails now as her head turned slightly to gain a glimpse of him. He wasn’t looking at her, he was very determined to relabel all the ingredients now. Her facial expression remained unchanged as she watched him scribble on one jar and empty another, and he didn’t even make a face at having to handle the frog’s livers.

‘You don’t have friends at all.’ He rolled his eyes sliding another jar aside and Ali frowned turning away from him now. She didn’t want to admit that that may have hurt a little more than she would have liked.

‘So Adams-‘ Sirius started again.

‘No.’

‘But I-‘

‘No.’

‘You haven’t even-‘

‘Oh, well then, definitely not.’ She smiled when he huffed and clanged a jar down.

After a few minutes Sirius tried again.

‘So, how about those dungbombs Peeves set off hey? What a scallywa-‘ before he could finish the word Ali had her wand out and muttered silencio and Sirius’s voice was lost. He made an uproar with his hands but it was all lost as Ali had shut her eyes and relaxed on the desk again.

‘If I didn’t hear it, you can’t get a detention from it.’ She had a sneaking suspicion that the dungbombs let off in the first years classroom that week wasn’t peeves’ doing alone. But she was at the end of her tether with Black. One more bloody detention and she was afraid what she might have done to him. He was getting far too casual with her as it was.

She swore at herself twice over the next hour when she realised she was staring. Sirius had plonked himself down on top of a desk also and was sorting things out with his back to her. She had a sneaking suspicion he would have been muttering if he could have been. What a glorious charm silencio was. She had to thank Professor Flitwick for teaching them that this year. When he huffed a breath out Ali’s eyes settled on the sixth years back. They lingered far too long on the dip just above his backside and she smacked herself in the forehead.

You can’t be a hypocrite Ali. You make fun of girls for staring at this loser. You’re not supposed to stare at him. What’s wrong with you? Control yourself! She argued inwardly. She made a point to examine a particularly interesting stone in the roof overhead from where she was laying. She shut her eyes and frown for a moment wondering if she should go to the match today? Sirius had seemed to pick up the pace. They might have made it. Merlin almighty, certainly not together, but maybe she could find a place with Irma like she had a few times before? Misha’s friends weren’t her biggest fans and Dirk had gotten a little odd since they went to the Christmas Party together so that ruled him out also, as Nay was on the Gryffindor team. Irma was always nice, quiet company.

She felt a hand settle on her knee and she jolted up with so much force she collided head first with Sirius who had simply been trying to get her attention.

‘Mother of all things magical, what were you thinking Black?!’ She shouted rubbing her head furiously as it pounded, filling with blood. When she opened her eyes her vision blurred for a moment before Sirius came into focus. He had a pathetically distressed look on and was rubbing his forehead in the same vigorous fashion.

‘It’s a pity I’m so good at charms work.’ She smiled still rubbing her head. ‘I would have enjoyed watching you puff up had I got that silencing charm wrong.’ Sirius glared at her as she flicked the counter charm at him.

‘Can I please go now? The games due to start any minute!’

‘Alright, fine. Dismissed.’ Ali rolled her eyes and pulled herself off the table. Sirius winked at her and dashed from the room before she could yell at him for it. Once he was gone she realised she was smiling slightly and smacked herself hard in the head for it. She didn’t have anything with her to collect besides her wand so she made her way out of the class room and up out of the dungeons absentmindedly.

When she was standing at the double doors that led out to the grounds she was weighing up her options. Once she decided some time with Irma might be nice and shrugged and made her way outside. As she came up to the quidditch pitch the screams and roars of approval were deafening. The game had only just started. She watched jadedly from her position on the ground as the red and yellow dots zoomed around miles above. She had never been overly interested in sports. She shrugged and made her way over to the teacher’s tower to climb.

Once she was up among the teachers, there weren’t any real questions to her appearance. She was quite well liked by all the staff. She saw Irma sitting alone as she usually was, moody thing that she could be, and took up a seat beside her. She gained a rare smile and a nod from the librarian and they turned their attention back to the pitch.

‘That would be ten points for the heroes of the school! The courageous lions among men!’ She heard Sirius’s voice boom around the stadium and she was about ready to kick herself for her stupidity. Of course the commentator was in the staff’s box. She saw McGonagall smack him with a rolled up tally sheet for his obvious side taking.

‘Apologies Minnie. Go Huff’n’stuff, you guys are great also.’ Ali noted that no one besides those in the staff’s seating would have heard that as he had pulled the speaker very far from his whispering mouth. ‘I suppose.’ He added and received another whack.

‘And the quaffle is re-taken by none other than James Potter! And I must say, what a handsome devil he is. You should see him out of the uniform, ladies, single file please.’ The crowd was laughing but McGonagall was giving him a good talking too. Ali even found a smile on her own lips at that. She was human, and even though quidditch was most witches and wizards favourite past time and that’s what they came for, everyone seemed to enjoy Sirius’s ridiculous commentating.

‘He goes in for the kill, and-‘ he froze as the entire stadium watched as James hurtled toward the opposing hoops and flogged the quaffle so hard it was a wonder it didn’t knock the Hufflepuff keeper clean off his broom. ‘-He SCORES! Another ten points for the chivalrous lions! Sorry, Gryffindor, where the brave of heart dwell. Sorry. Just Gryffindor.’ Sirius was wincing as McGonagall held up her rolled up tally menacingly.

‘Number five is really pelting along up there, possession of the quaffle turns to the yellow team.’ This was something Sirius liked to do. The only person he would use the name of was James. The rest were all just colours and numbers. Ali raised a brow wondering why they never revoked the job from him. If he was in detention when a match was on, Stebbin’s would take over, but he didn’t cause nearly as much of an uproar with his carefully selected words.

‘Yellow team captain is hurtling towards red’s keeper. He’s zooming along like a dung Beatle, would you look at him go! He shoots and- safe! Gryffindor is too good! Save of a lifetime by number two! You go number two! Quaffle’s possession turns back over to Gryffindor, number five passes to James, smart move number five. Gryffindor’s esteemed captain takes the pitch by storm, look at him go, soaring like a hippogriff, regal as they come. Don’t let that fool you though, complete dork out of the uniform. Take his glasses away and he’d trip over his own foot.’

‘Mister Black!’ McGonagall chastised.

‘He SCORES! Another ten points to Gryffindor! At this rate we might not even need to snitch to secure a win. But we believe in you six! You can find it!’ He received another favouritism smack and after that got a little more on track with his calls. The previous Gryffindor match that was back in November saw the team win over Slytherin two hundred and forty to one hundred. If they won this game also they could very well have gotten the quidditch cup.

As hours ticked by, Sirius’s loud humour-induced commentating kept the crowd laughing but Ali’s mind trailed off. She spoke to Irma from time to time about books and asked about any she should have read from among the librarian’s favourites. Irma suggested her three that had not yet come into her grasp which gave her a happy swirling feelings. Books were like crack to Ali.

There were a few close calls. One sub had to be called in for the Gryffindor chaser ‘number one’ as Sirius had so affectionately named her. Poor girl took a bludger straight to the head. She would have been out for days. It didn’t stop the team from scoring however as Gryffindor were leading one hundred and fifty to ninety. Hufflepuff were giving them a run for their money, and Sirius had even given them a few compliments for their efforts. Which he told them was the highest honour.

By the time Ali had gotten into a most comfortable position and was once again picking at her fingernails trying to make them as cleanly and nice as possible she glanced over at where Sirius sat beside McGonagall and saw his attention following the chaser soaring by their box and as his head turned, he caught sight of her staring. She looked away faster than she thought was possible and started talking to Irma about all the things she had learnt on the properties of moonstones thanks to the helpful library books. This pleased the librarian greatly.

Sirius’ loud voice around the stadium told her he was no longer looking at her and she chose this time to quickly look back again. What was he doing looking over at her? Stupid moron’s attention should have been on the game, Ali thought. She held her nose high in the air with her negative opinions and wondered why she was still at the game at all? She never really came down to them. She used the time in the castle to revel in the freedom of having nearly no students around. It was some of her favourite times of the school year.

There was a loud clang signifying another point to Hufflepuff. Ali huffed.

‘Quidditch is boring.’ She complained.

‘Tell me about it.’ Irma agreed.

‘Why are we even here?’

‘You tell me kid. I get a fair amount of enjoyment out of watching them get cobbled by bludgers. Serves them right for disrespecting my books.’ Ali felt a small giggle surface at Irma’s reply and she felt sorry for all the people that got on the Librarian’s wrong side. They all missed her dry humour. Most people barely heard her speak.

The two book enthusiasts were about ready to call it quits as the game seemed to be a never ending one and darkness was descending around the ground when Sirius shouted out that both the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff seekers had seemed to have caught sight of the snitch.

‘They’ve seen it! The snitch is in sight! Red number six dives in pursuit of the snitch with yellow number two not far behind! Gryffindor are still in possession of the quaffle, they won’t let the commotion of the snitch stop them from scoring, and another ten points to Gryffindor! Red three and four have sent bludgers straight for the Hufflepuff seeker and OUCH! Connected! Bad luck there, she’s fallen off her broom! Will their sub get on the pitch in time? Hufflepuff supporters are coming to a nail biting end.’

‘Hufflepuff are now in possession of the quaffle! But the Gryffindor seeker is racing behind what must be the golden snitch. Can’t for the life of me see it. Probably why I’m not on the team. But you get that.’

‘Black!’

‘Right! And Hufflepuff score! Ten points for the yellow guys. Good job mates! You put up a good fight. Useless but-‘

‘Black!’

‘It looks like, yes? YES! She’s caught it! GRYFFINDOR SEEKER HAS SECURED THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WIN! Three hundred and ten to one hundred and thirty! SMASHED! Sorry chaps but wow WHAT A WIN!’ Cheers were heard all around the stadium and even Irma and Ali had joined the rest of the staff box in standing up and clapping. Dumbledore was waving a small red flag back and forth with an airy smile. McGonagall had forgotten all about Sirius and was whooping and clapping loudly.

Ali watched as the Gryffindor team all touched down on the ground and ran over to the tiny seeker and lifted her up high cheering loudly. James was belting out a chorus of something they couldn’t hear and Sirius was making some last minute announcements about where this placed all the houses. Ali’s stomach sank now that the win had sunk in.

‘Oh, no!’ She turned to the librarian.

‘What?’ Irma raised one of her thin brows.

‘You know what this means? Party in the Gryffindor common room.’ She made a very sarcastic whooping motion with a singular finger as her face died.

‘I could keep the library open a little later tonight if you’d like?’ She suggested and Ali sighed in relief.

‘Oh thank merlin.’ Irma gave her a very rare laugh and they gave a few more polite claps before being the first ones to disappear together back to the school and avoid the masses.


	14. Curses in the corridors

It was late afternoon and the boys were bored of their ancient runes class already. It had only begun ten minutes ago, but they hated Tuesday afternoons. Muggle studies, followed by ancient runes. The worst. James, Sirius and Peter all took muggle studies together because James had decided he needed to be better versed in all things muggle related for when he started dating Lily. Sirius liked the idea of understanding muggles better for a less girl related reasons and Peter just followed their lead. Remus’s mother being a muggle saw him decline the offer of joining them. Ancient runes was Remus’s idea. The three other boys all liked to remind him of this fact when they got particularly annoying homework from Professor Babbling.   
  
Sirius was rocking back on his chair, mouth agape, staring up into nothing. Peter was beside him picking his nose absentmindedly. Remus was scrawling out notes next to Peter as he actually enjoyed this class. James was beside Remus just staring straight ahead at the board where Professor Babbling was explaining types of ancient Egyptian runes and how they could be linked back to a lot of magical heritage. Or at least that’s what it seemed like he was staring at. To the untrained eye. He was actually glancing over at Lily from time to time where she was taking notes with Mary two rows down to their right. Just as his hazel eyes darted back to her behind his glasses once again, she peered over her shoulder very covertly and glanced at him. Their eyes caught for the briefest second before James quickly averted his and refocused them on a very interesting bug flying overhead.   
  
His heart’s rhythm had picked up from the eye contact. He felt it thud in his chest for a few seconds before he calmed down. He was  _such_  an idiot. How could he get this worked up over a  _girl_? He told himself off almost daily when this happened but he just couldn’t control it. When he was younger he tried and tried to ignore it. He would tell his friends they were stupid when they teased him.  _You like Evans! Just admit it James!_  Sirius used to laugh at him every time he would walk into a pillar because she had walked by and caught his attention in the halls.  _I do **not**  like Evans!_ Oh he tried and tried to make people believe that.   
  
_No Professor, I do **not**  like Evans!_ He would say to McGonagall when she used to reprimand him for not paying attention in class.  _Then why, Mister Potter, are you sitting in front of your half transformed water goblet and looking over at Miss Evans like she could be a pot of galleons?_  
  
_No Remus! I do **not**  like Evans!_ He would yell at his friends when they would elbow him and laugh when Lily walked by and gave him a fleeting smile.  _Then why are you redder than a phoenix on its burning day right now?_  
  
_Dammit Hagrid! I do **not**  bloody like Evans!_ He would yell at their gamekeeper when they kept him company from time to time as he tended to the school cabbages.  _Then why are yeh assaultin’ poor Nigel like tha’ since she walked by?_ Hagrid’s pet Niffler never did quite like James after that day.  
  
Eventually he gave up on fighting people about it. He had gone home in the summer after his fourth year at Hogwarts and spoken to his father. He asked him about girls, to which he got a very awkward explanation in return before he burst out that it wasn’t like that and he just wanted one to notice him. Thankfully his father didn’t press the matter on who the girl was, he just smiled nostalgically and gave him some advice.  
  
When they returned as fifth years James decided to flaunt the fact that he had feelings for the red head instead of denying it. He had to admit most of the stuff he did to get her attention was even questionable by his standards. He couldn’t help it though. When she came into view he always panicked and by the time the words were spilling out of his mouth or his hand was in his hair he was inwardly screaming “you stupid gimp, what did you just say?! Was that a pick up line involving broom sticks? Merlin,  **no!** ”  
  
Well that was how it started out anyway. The first couple of times he’d brought up the idea of them going out or on a date and Lily had openly rejected him, he was wounded. He didn’t know what to do. He was  _James Potter_. His mum loved him! He was picked as a chaser for the quidditch team by his second year! Why didn’t she like him? He admitted that since second year he definitely had a bit of a thing for Lily. By third year he certainly enjoyed watching her play with her hair through History classes. By fourth year he had experienced some  _very_  questionable dreams about her. Once waking up to Sirius looming over him with a perfectly evil smile relaying how he had been moaning out her name. Wow, he did not live that one down until very recently and that was only because Sirius had seemed to have forgotten it for the time being.   
  
By fifth year, when he had accepted he definitely thought Lily was a pretty girl and he would certainly like to snog her, he had tried his luck only to be turned down. That was when his infatuation seemed to grow to uncontrollable proportions. How could she turn him down? He was a handsome lad, loads of people told him that. Nearly everyone liked him that wasn’t dressed in green and silver at their school. It was puzzling. Lily Evans was a problem James Potter wanted to solve. He definitely played it up to his friends that she was something he needed to conquer, when in reality he realized towards the end of his fifth year that Lily Evans was not something he wanted to conquer at all.  
  
Lily Evans was the most exquisitely fascinating witch. She was smart and caring and funny. She could balance her school work as well as prefect duties and have a huge amount of people admire her. Including her teachers. Lily Evans looked out for everyone. Lily Evans helped people with their homework. Lily Evans absolutely annihilated everyone in potions. (Well besides Snape but he didn’t count, he was a little git.) Lily Evans was proud and strong and beautiful. She was the perfect example of a Gryffindor. James Potter could never want or hope to conquer such a woman. He just knew he wanted her respect. But for the life of him he couldn’t bloody control himself around her long enough to convey that.   
  
Every time he tried to tell her she looked pretty it came out as some kind of derogatory remark that made him want to punch himself for afterwards. Every time he tried to have a conversation with her it ended in his friends all cooing behind him and causing him to fumble. Every damn time he was in her presence he played with his stupid hair, or hexed her, or generally screwed up his chances. He should really have just given up because it did occur to him that he, James Potter, quidditch captain and loveable jokester, just did not seem to have as much luck with the ladies.   
  
Sirius seemed to have girls following him around to which he was either oblivious to, or actively ignored. And while James knew there was more than a few girls that would have liked to have gotten him behind a tapestry or two… they didn’t have dark red hair and green eyes and that apparently was his thing. Suddenly a bit of scrunched up parchment rolled over to land in front of him and he was pulled from his thoughts. He glanced over to Sirius who was finally sitting forward on all the legs of his chair and looking over at him with a grin.   
  
He quickly unravelled the note and read it.   
  
_Lily is a type of flower, not a following mate. You really need to learn to disguise your day dreaming. Pluck that Lily already! I believe in you!_  
  
He quickly scrawled a s _hut up_ and rolled it back. He glanced over at her once more but this time she was very much paying attention to Babbling again. Her hair was out today. He loved it when her hair was out. But then again he loved it when her hair was up too because then he could stare at the cute little freckle she had on her neck just below her left ear. At that moment he was so very thankful none of his friends practiced legilimency. The taunting he would have been subjected to had any three of them heard about ninety percent of the Lily-related things floating about his head would be immeasurable.   
  
Another note rolled to rest in front of him.   
  
_PRONGS SHE’S LOOKING AT YOU! QUICK, ACT COOL! PLAY WITH YOUR HAIR THAT ALWAYS IMPRESSES HER!_  
  
He could hear Sirius muffling his laughter. He looked down at the parchment he had been writing on only to notice he had traced out the letters L.E again. He swore and went to dab his quill in his ink pot in an attempt to scribble out the silly letters but as he did his eyes glanced her way in a rhythmic fashion. Sirius wasn’t lying. She was looking at him again. He didn’t know what to do. Their eyes caught each other’s once again and without meaning to his hand made a move for his hair. This of course wasn’t the best idea seeing as it was already preoccupied with his quill. It resulted in an entire ink pot spilt all over his desk, hands, robes, werewolf best friend, and runes dictionary.   
  
He swore. Sirius was openly laughing at him now, as was Peter. Remus quickly helped him with the clean-up saying something about “two times in two weeks” but he wasn’t really paying attention. He had once again made a complete idiot out of himself in front of Lily. How many times could this happen? Surely he had to calm down around her at some point? He was a laughing stock. As soon as the desk and two boys were clean of the ink a third note rolled over and settled in front of him. James sighed and sprawled it open.   
  
_I think you and I need to have a Sirius discussion over the definition of cool. Because my word Prongs was that **smooth**._  
  
He underlined his reply of  _will you stop it!_  about five times too many before rolling it back. He felt like curling up into a ball from embarrassment. He opted to just sliding down in his chair until he was almost invisible to the class. There was only so many times in a day he could syphon off his embarrassment as heroism and act like it didn’t faze him. Well no, that wasn’t true. A lot of the time he did just decide to bask in his own idiocy. Who better to laugh at than yourself? But dousing oneself in ink wasn’t really something to write home about. Although he expected his mother would probably find the good in it.   
  
James sighed loudly and Remus gave him a sideways glance. ‘Don’t worry about it Prongs. I reckon she found that endearing.’ He whispered, nodding his head over to where she sat. When James followed his lead he noticed both Lily and Mary looking at him. Lily had a sweet little smirk on before she turned back to Babbling and Mary winked at him. He felt himself smile unwillingly and tried to act like he didn’t want to jump for joy. When Babbling started to get into particularly difficult rune translations, he decided it was time to follow Remus’s lead. He looked over to Sirius, who was apparently a few steps ahead of him, copying down notes already. The rest of the class passed by without incident.   
  
Something told James that today wasn’t a day to annoy Lily, so he didn’t bother her as they filed out of the room. As they made their way out of their last class of the day they were thankful they only had one level to climb to their Gryffindor tower. James strode on ahead with Peter coming up close on his heels while Sirius and Remus followed along behind them cavalierly.  As they got to the sixth floor landing a small first year Ravenclaw girl seemed to notice the foursome and missed the last step she was descending and landed flat on her face. James smirked a little but bent down to where she was pushing herself up, blood coming from her lip.  
  
‘Hey, you okay?’ He asked and her lip began to quiver. ‘Uh-uh, no tears.’ He nodded astutely, raising his wand. He used the  _episkey_  spell non-verbally and the small split in her lip sealed up and she blinked a few times allowing a couple of stray tears to trail from her eyes. James wiped the tears from her cheek then pinched it.  
  
‘Ow.’ She smiled at that. James grabbed her under the arms and lifted her to her feet with ease.   
  
‘Alright?’ He asked and she replied with a lot of nodding and a coy smile. ‘Do you perhaps need a chaperone to the bathroom to help with the clean up?’ She just shook her head at this. It did seem she was rather lost for words before the popular sixth year. James found it decidedly cute and ruffled up her hair. ‘Off you go then.’ Her cheeks went bright red when she realised how many people were standing behind them waiting to climb the stairs and she ran off to find a bathroom.  
  
‘Well at least we know you’re not completely useless with the ladies Prongs.’ Sirius spoke from his right side and clapped him on the shoulder. ‘Let’s veer away from the minors though shall we?’  
  
‘I can’t help it if they just flock to my natural charms and good looks Padfoot. T’is a curse I must endure. For the sake of my people.’ James sighed as Sirius rested his arm around his neck. They began climbing the stairs together.  
  
‘If either of your heads got any bigger you’d have to drag them behind you when you walked.’ Peter spoke dodging them easily to find a higher place on the stairs as they began to change. It didn’t put them out, it only meant a slightly longer walk to the portrait hole.  
  
‘I thought they already did that?’ A voice came from behind them that certainly wasn’t Remus. James froze as he usually did in her presence. Lily and Mary just walked by as the boys made way for them. James noticed the kind smile on Lily’s face that betrayed her words. When they were a few steps up James let his head fall and rest on Sirius’s shoulder and Sirius curled his arm up a little further to stroke his hair.  
  
‘There, there Prongs.’ He cooed, patting him.   
  
‘Sometimes I wonder how you turn into the dog when he’s clearly the love-sick puppy in this group.’ Remus said once Lily and Mary were out of earshot. Sirius laughed at that.  
  
‘Are we all forgetting that I am literally named after the Dog Star? The form was mine from birth Moony.  _Birth_.’ Sirius still had his hand on James’ head as they began to follow after the girls. James was absently thinking of the sweet smile on Lily’s face leaving him to still be very much attached to Sirius’s shoulder.  
  
‘Are you guys-  **whoa!** ’ Sirius almost choked James as he yanked him by the throat as a jet of light narrowly missed his face. The boys all turned their attention to the top of the staircase where Lily and Mary had disappeared from. They noticed Mulciber and Snape standing together, snickering. James thanked Sirius after he regained his footing and they all had their wands drawn.  
  
‘Alright there four eyes?’ Mulciber spat out over the railing where he and Snape were now holding their wands.  
  
‘Fine actually.’ James shrugged. ‘Seeing as my eyesight is better than yours, mine won’t miss.’ As James flicked a hex at the boys Mulciber deflected it. When Sirius did the same Snape deflected it. Mulciber’s attempt was deflected by Peter but it had distracted them from Snape who landed one on Sirius and blood spat out from his chest instantly. Sirius didn’t so much as cry in pain as he quickly slapped a hand over the gash and Remus shouted out.  
  
‘ **Enough!** ’ His voice trailed down the staircase to where a few students were watching the display and everyone froze.  
  
‘Snape! Detention!’ Remus called out but paid the two boys little attention as he flew over to Sirius who was crouched down now looking slightly paler than usual. James had gotten to him before Remus trying to inspect his wound.  
  
‘Quick, let me look.’ He fussed over his best friend and while the two boys tried to tend to Sirius, Peter kept his wand out towards Snape and Mulciber who had both now decided to flee the scene. ‘Uh, Moony. I don’t know a spell for cuts this deep!’ James’s voice was high with anxiety. Sirius’s head was drooping slightly as the blood began to drip from his clothes now it was flowing so heavily.  
  
‘Moony!’ James shouted but Remus was frozen. Peter was now beside them.  
  
‘Quick we better get him to the hospital wing to see Madam Pomfrey before be bloody bleeds out!’ Peter urged and grabbed James. He was thankful that someone seemed to be thinking a little more clearly in the situation than he could. He heaved Sirius’s arm over his shoulder and they made their way down three sets of staircases and pushed by a few worried looking students. As they got to the fourth floor one screamed out to stop them as they passed her.   
  
‘What happened!?’ Adams had grabbed a hold of James to stop them and he shouted at her.  
  
‘Leave it the hell alone Adams! He needs help! Not a detention!’ He was so used to this prefect seeming to have it out for Sirius he couldn’t think rationally at the moment. Adams just slapped him clean across the face and he lost his hold on Sirius.   
  
‘Sirius!’ She pulled the boy to herself and Remus came from behind them and held him up. She pulled him down into her lap as she sat back on the stairs, Remus helping her with Sirius’s weight. She looked as if she was trying to recall something in the back of her mind, furiously. Then it came to her.  
  
‘ _Vulnera Sanentur.’_  She spoke softly running her wand over the gash. It began to close just as Sirius’s body started to fit. Adams seemed to freeze at this. The incantation was clearly advanced healing magic. It should have worked for the deepest of wounds. She didn’t allow herself to panic however and she seemed to decide to try it over again.  
  
She spoke the words over again and the gash knit together more as she ignored the violent shaking and tried to hold Sirius steady and stay calm. James was frozen still as he watched. It still wasn’t healed and Adams swore. A third time she spoke the rhythmic incantation and Sirius looked like he was breathing again. The gash seemed to be completely sealed now although very red and inflamed. James watched in awe as Sirius slumped into Adams lap fully and she brushed the hair out of his face. When James looked up to examine her, her face was horror stricken. She was covered in blood now. Sirius was worse. He looked down and realised he too was smeared in it.   
  
‘What happened?’ She asked feverishly directing her attention to Remus.   
  
‘Snape.’ Remus, who still seemed to be as shocked as James, just shook his head shrugging.  
  
‘It’s okay. You’ll be okay.’ She was still stroking his face, wiping beads of sweat away, and Sirius seemed to be regaining a little bit of his consciousness. ‘Help me you idiots. He still needs to see Madam Pomfrey. That only closed the wound, he’s lost an astronomical amount of blood.’ She directed a perfectly cold look at James who reacted as soon as he could find his feet.  
  
‘Adams…’ James started as he and Peter lifted Sirius up and helped him find his footing. Remus was shaking slightly as he did the same with the younger prefect.  
  
‘I’m going to find that little shit and wipe his nose with a nail encrusted plank of wood!’ She wasn’t quite shouting, but her words were fierce as she hurried along behind them as they made their way quickly over to the hospital wing entrance. ‘The headmaster is going to hear about this! How can he think using dark magic like this is acceptable?!’  
  
‘No.’ They heard weakly from Sirius. ‘Just leave it.’ He managed to get out as they got to the hospital wing doors.  
  
‘Fat chance.’ Adams spoke for all of them but as she made to open the door Sirius pulled on her robes and stood on his own.  
  
‘Please. Leave it.’ He looked perfectly pathetic, covered in blood and swaying slightly with James and Peter standing to either side ready to catch him. Adams stared at him for a moment her expression unreadable.   
  
She blinked, ‘oh for goodness sake! Fine!’ She turned and pushed open the doors. ‘Madam Pomfrey! A student has stupidly fallen on a shard of glass! No idea how, please treat this moron!’ She announced tramping in. James, who had caught Sirius and was helping him to follow her lead, felt Sirius trying to laugh. It admittedly turned into a coughing splutter before Madam Pomfrey came out from her office and shrieked at the sight of that much blood on three of her students. The matron started barking orders and once Sirius was safely in a bed they were all washed over with a sense of ease.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While it says that the spell to heal sectumsempra was created by Snape, I honestly doubt that it was. It's used in the series by healers and Dumbledore and Snape can't be THAT well known as a spell creator? I feel like he did create the need for it being used three times over however. So that's what I'm sticking with. I honestly doubt in their time at Hogwarts Severus Snape never actively sought the Marauders out and did a few hexes of his own. He did try and use sectumsempra on James in SWM, so truly even if it's a little dramatic, I feel this scene is plausible.


	15. Caught in the act

Two days on Aaliyah was in the library alone finishing off her last bit of holiday homework for transfiguration. The Easter holidays hadn't started as of yet, but she couldn't help herself. As she dotted the last period on her essay and looked over it, her mind drifted to the horrific scene she'd witnessed on Tuesday. She felt her heart race a little faster as the image of Sirius covered in thick warm blood snapped before her. She couldn't understand for the life of her why Sirius had decided to play down the fact that Snape, he and James' sworn enemy, had used such horrible magic on them. But when they dragged him to those hospital doors and he had pushed his friends off him to take a weak stand on his own and pleaded so helplessly to her that she not mention it, her heart had missed a beat and she had agreed.  
  
She found it disturbing but she didn't want to go back on the promise. Once she had explained to Madam Pomfrey that she had found him after he clumsily fell through a window, the matron got to work immediately, gathering dittany and whipping up a blood replenishing potion. She had commended Aaliyah for her quick thinking to seal the wound. Ali was so thankful in that moment that her mother was an advanced healer and enjoyed teaching her healing spells when she was home from school. "You never know when they'll come in handy." Kanika's voice rang in her head and she smiled. Her mum, the mastermind midget. She would have gotten a smack clean across the head for even thinking that in Kanika's presence, she thought, and rolled up her Transfiguration essay.  
  
OWLs were coming up next term and Ali could certainly feel the rise in their work load, but school work never bothered her. It excited her. She placed the essay away in her bag and got to her feet. She intended to hand it in early in the hope that McGonagall would mark it and give her the results before she left school for home. However, after she left the library intending to descend the stairs to the first floor, she found herself standing outside the doors of the hospital wing instead of at her Head of House's office. She blinked, unsure of why her feet had carried her in such a vastly different direction. She turned away at first but then told herself she should check on Sirius, make sure her spell had left as little scarring as possible. That way she could relay it to her mother proudly. Yes. Perfect idea.  
  
She pushed open one of the double doors and slipped inside. The sun was setting by now and the torches around the place were lighting up, bathing the wing in many shades of orange. She looked around and noticed Sirius had been moved from the bed he had been in two days ago to the one closest to the matron's office. The only other occupant was a Hufflepuff third year who had his arm in a sling. He was watching her and she suddenly felt like an absolute idiot for making her way here to see someone she found to be particularly foul. But the wound. She had to inspect the wound. She nodded to herself ignoring the stares of the Hufflepuff and made her way over to where Sirius was laying.  
  
He was thankfully asleep. He seemed to be much better for wear as he had kicked most of the bed sheets off the actual bed and they were tangled around his lower limbs. He was sprawled out and breathing evenly with a hand up resting over where his chest was bandaged up. This posed a problem. For a moment she contemplated how she would inspect the wound with him sleeping like that, and it still being covered. But then she seemed to forget about her reasons for being there and watched as his chest slowly rose and fell. He seemed so peaceful in that moment so she allowed herself to stand quietly and admire him. For it wasn't often she was able to do so without him either making some kind of remark that made her want to locate a beaters bat and take it to his face. Or that he wasn't doing  _something_  that required her to be reprimanding him for.  
  
As his chest rose and fell, rose and fell, she reached out and touched her hand to where she had sealed up the gaping gash. It flashed back before her eyes again and she shivered. She wasn't particularly squeamish around blood, but anyone would have lost themselves in that situation. It had been everywhere. So dark and still pulsating from his chest and soaking his then tattered school shirt. Her face adopted a concerned look as she directed her attention up to his face. She relaxed when she saw how peacefully he was dreaming. He twitched slightly in his sleep. A very small smile even tugged the corner of his lips but it faded just as quickly and she wondered what it must have been filling his head to cause him to smile even out of his subconscious.  
  
She got lost in her actions and didn't realise she was brushing a few of his long black hairs out of his face. The skin of his forehead was so soft to touch. His hair was longer than she'd ever seen it at the moment, it would have seemed he hadn't cut it since the start of the school year seven months ago. Her eyes trailed down his quite perfectly shaped nose and rested on his lips again. They were a deep red at the moment, which was a compliment against his creamy white skin. She expected it was from all the blood replenishing potions Madam Pomfrey must have been feeding him. As she retracted her hand slowly from his hair, which was a little damp from sweat, she touched his bandages once again. Sirius's hand, where it was resting on his lower rib cage reacted to the touch and darted up to grab her. She squeaked and looked up at his face once more.  
  
His pale grey eyes were staring at her in what she could only have described as astonishment. He didn't let go of her hand and Ali felt her cheeks going bright red. It was then that the hospital doors swung open and a rowdy crowd entered. She quickly took the moment of noise to recoil from his touch and both Sirius and Ali's attentions were turned to where James, Peter and Remus were filing over to them.  
  
'Adams!' James shouted and raced over to Sirius' bed. He flew around the bedside fluidly and grabbed her into a one sided hug. 'Lady of the hour!' He announced loudly. Ali couldn't bring herself to look anywhere near Sirius having just been caught red handed practically stroking him.  
  
'Hey Ali.' She relaxed a little when she saw Remus take a seat in the chair on the opposite side of the bed. She was overwhelmed by not only the act of molestation she had just been found in but the four boys she was usually busting all seeming to be cheering at her company. Peter had even come around to pat her shoulder.  
  
She allowed her eyes to trace back to Sirius now and he was still looking at her. The shock having been replaced with grin.  _Just bloody perfect,_ she thought. She was never going to live this down.  
  
'I just came to check on your-' she stopped herself from saying chest and cursed to herself again for blushing. James and Peter were being so loud beside her she wanted to melt into the floor.  
  
'What is all this  _noise_?' The matron peered around her office door.  
  
'Sorry Poppy!' James called back. 'We'll keep it down.' He let Ali go and pointed at Remus. 'Dammit Moony, you need to stop causing so much of a ruckus, you hooligan.'  
  
'Shut up Potter.' Ali rolled her eyes defending her friend instantly but James just laughed and grabbed her into one of his arms again. She definitely did not like that. She had never been wildly fond of skin to skin contact. She even kept over exaggerated hugging to a minimum with her parents.  
  
'No really Adams.' James sobered setting her free. 'We never really got a chance to thank you. And ever since we've just kind of been here. We were meaning to track you down.'  
  
'Yeah. If it hadn't been for you.' Peter spoke from her left.  
  
'Thanks Adams.' Sirius spoke for the first time now summing up what they were trying to say. All eyes turned on him, but Sirius's own were fixed on the prefect. There was a lingering silence for a moment.  
  
'W-well I couldn't just let you bleed out on the stair case. Someone might have slipped in it!' As soon as the words left her mouth she regretted it. James, Sirius and Peter all burst into laughter. Sirius stopped abruptly and clutched his chest and Remus, who was smiling beside him, sat forward to make sure he was alright.  
  
'Not used to being the one on the bedside are you Moony?' Sirius joked and all the boys laughed at that, even Remus. Aaliyah felt herself frown and become increasingly out of place. Why these morons were always laughing about Remus's hospital visits she never thought she would understand?  
  
'How is it healing?' She asked feeling there had to at least be some reasoning to all the commotion she was enduring.  
  
'So great.' Said Peter. 'Well, besides-'  
  
'Yeah Poppy's really impressed Adams. No idea how you even knew healing magic like that.' James interrupted unknowingly.  
  
'Her mother's a healer at St. Mungo's.' Remus took the chance to talk up his unlikely friend. James whistled and that's when Aaliyah took note of how Sirius was acting. When she fixed her look on him he was rubbing his chest trying to go unnoticed.  
  
'Is it hurting?' She flared up moving forward and Sirius just laughed.  
  
'Since when are you so vigilant about anything other than unfairly detaining me?' She recoiled her advancing hand instantly remembering how he had been previously holding her. Then she noticed the red seeping through the bandages.  
  
She gasped, 'It's re-opened?!' She indicted pulling her wand out but the matron pushed Ali and James aside out of nowhere.  
  
'Move. Move!' She had a red cup of potion at his lips instantly as her free hand flicked her wand at the bandages and they flew off to reveal a neatly opening cut, much smaller than it had been, but still producing fair flow of blood. As soon as she had spoken the familiar incantation once, the small wound closed at her wand tip.  
  
'I wish you would all just tell me what actually happened. Then I might have a better chance of making sure this was the right course of action.' She glared around at the boys. 'This wound is infected with dark magic, not glass shards. Drink!' She demanded and Sirius gulped down the potion not wanting the back hand of her wrath.  
  
'Some things are better left unknown Poppy.' Sirius supplied after finishing the potion and Ali noticed his attention turn to Remus. The matron sighed.  
  
'The lot of you need to vacate. I won't have him laughing at you all and opening it up again. Out!' She demanded and James just reached out to Sirius and grabbed his hand.  
  
'Goodbye for now my love!' He rasped out, pretending to sniffle.  
  
'We shall be reunited, fear not.' Sirius replied in a much more casual manner as they lingered hand in hand. They started laughing and Sirius's hand left James' and went for his chest.  
  
' **Out**!' Madam Pomfrey bellowed and Remus placed a hand on Aaliyah's lower back, leading them to be the first out the doors. James and Peter weren't far behind.  
  
'Why is he covering for Snape? I don't get it?' Ali asked as the four of them stood outside the hospital wing. Remus looked guilty and Peter shuffled his feet beside them.  
  
'We've done a lot of crappy things to the toad-breath Adams. I guess he feels like he doesn't want to be a snitch.' James thought about it. 'And not the good kind.' He added for good measure, like anyone would confuse the two.  
  
'She's right though.' Ali spoke to them all now instead of just directing her thoughts to the one she knew best. 'That's  _dark_  magic. Foul. That healing spell only needs to be used once at the best of times. Experienced healers wouldn't think to use it twice. I read up on it yesterday. If the spell doesn't work the first time, it should have been rendered useless. Luckily I didn't know that, because it seemed to work after three tries.' For the first time in her life the day prior she was glad there was a piece of information about a spell she hadn't memorized.  
  
James was looking at her in a way she didn't quite understand. Peter seemed to be at a loss for words. Remus drew his hand up from her lower back and gave her a reassuring back rub before letting it fall and she realised she'd forgotten he had allowed it to loiter there.  
  
'I'd rather not dwell on it actually. It's taken every ounce of my being not to track him down and get myself expelled as it is.' James spat. 'I'm pretty sure my mum would smack me reasonably hard if that happened.' Peter laughed at James' words as James rested his body weight on the shorter, stouter boy by leaning against his shoulder.  
  
'You coming up to the common room?' Remus enquired and Ali remembered what she was supposed to be doing.  
  
'Oh, no. You go on ahead. I'm off to see McGonagall.' She was already feeling uneasy being around the boys for so long without some kind of prefect related reason to be doing so.  
  
'I'd love to pay Minnie a visit.' James interjected.  
  
'Yeah. I reckon she'll have some of those biscuits. She's seeing the fifth years soon isn't she?' Peter pepped up and Remus was caught smiling at his friends kind actions.  
  
'Well, looks like you're stuck with us. Sorry Ali.' Remus offered turning to her.  
  
Ali sighed loudly, 'Fine. Just, don't break any school rules on the walk, if that's possible for you two.' She directed at James and Peter and they laughed, James saluting her.

*

  
The next day after classes Aaliyah found herself once again before the hospital wing doors. She didn't even realise she here until she was. This time it was particularly strange to her as she had been on her way to the library. She had  _never_  gotten lost on her way to the library. She refused to go in this time however as she could hear James's voice coming from inside and it had taken her a good two hours to shake the boys yesterday. She wasn't sure she was ready for that much social interaction again. The boys she usually turned her nose up at for their misdeeds had surprised her yesterday afternoon.  
  
They were their usual loud selves in front of McGonagall. When they'd reached her office James addressed her flippantly by nicknames, which the stern professor had reprimanded him for. When they left Peter had engaged Ali in a conversation about healing spells. He seemed to be very curious about them. They spoke about it all the way up to the common room and she hadn't even realised she had sat down with them, she had been so engrossed in trying to educate the stringy haired boy. She always got carried away when it came to learning and teaching.  
  
She found after a while that they were all a lot like Remus in the way they didn't make her feel threatened. It was curious. She didn't know what it was about the other boys around the school that approached her, but they frightened her in a way. Not that she was overly fearful, but the way they approached her always seemed belligerent and the way they all seemed to stutter and fall over themselves made her generally pull away from their conversations. Remus's friends however seemed to just continue on their normal conversations in her presence and occasionally asked her a few questions about herself. Remus offered his help with a few of her replies from time to time seeming to enjoy the joined interactions.  
  
Still, despite their easy natures and the socialness being casual and relaxed, Ali wasn't used to being surrounded by unfamiliar people and it exhausted her. No, she wasn't ready to jump into that again. She turned away from the door and bumped into someone clumsily. They both steadied themselves and she quickly offered a sorry in reply.  
  
Regulus just stared at her, seemingly devoid of any emotion. He contemplated something before speaking.  
  
'Is my- Is he okay?' He asked making eye contact and Aaliyah noticed a flash of very real worry in his eyes. He vastly resembled his older brother, there was no doubt about that. But he probably wasn't  _as_  rudely good looking, and fairly slighter of form. His eyes were less pale than Sirius's. They were probably better described as blue rather than grey. Ali shared classes with Regulus and yet they had never spoken a word before this.  
  
'You don't want to go in and check for yourself?' Aaliyah wondered raising a brow. It was common knowledge that the brothers didn't really have a profound bond or anything. But they were still  _brothers_. Aaliyah had the shrilling thought of Tucker, her baby sibling, covered in blood like Sirius and she felt her eyes sting at the mere thought. She wouldn't have left his bedside. He meant the world to her.  
  
'Is he alright?' He spoke a little more demandingly this time and Ali huffed at his stubbornness.  
  
'He'll be fine. No thanks to your bloody mate Snivelly though.' She couldn't even stop herself using the adopted nickname for the greasy sixth year.  
  
'Stupid bastard.' Regulus swore under his breath. Aaliyah wasn't sure if he had intended the insult for his brother or his attacker. It really could have gone either way.  
  
'Thanks Adams.' He bowed his head politely to her and turned around leaving from where he had come. Ali just stared after his retreating figure mildly stunned. When she recovered and looked to her left she caught a couple of girls craning their heads to see if they could get a glimpse through the hospital doors which had been left ajar.  
  
'What do you lot need?' Ali enquired and the three girls froze and turned to her. They had nothing to supply her with and just kind of looked back and forth at each other.  
  
'If you don't need a healer or have a friend inside, get a move on.'  
  
'Is he okay?' One of them struck up the courage to ask. She was the only Slytherin of the group.  
  
'Blimey, yes, he's fine. Now move along.' All the girls smiled at that and easily got a move on down the corridor towards the grand staircase together. Aaliyah sighed knowing she was probably going to get cornered by her dorm mates again when she got back upstairs. They had been trying relentlessly to get the full story from her which at first she enjoyed toying with, but was now beginning to tire of spinning lies in an attempt to keep her promise to Sirius. She reassured herself that in the morning she would be taking the train home to see her family.


	16. Full moon runs

Sirius was only allowed to leave the hospital wing nearly a week after the incident three days into their Easter break at the discretion of their fussy matron. She was hesitant to let him leave even then, to which Sirius argued that the wound was now pink and clearing up nicely from the dittany. He hadn’t had a dizzy spell since Thursday when it last reopened. He was going stir crazy locked in the hospital wing. His friends were being sent away nearly every time they came. As he finally made his way up the stairs to the Gryffindor tower alone, he felt free. If there was one thing he hated, it was being trapped somewhere. Anywhere. He had been trapped in his childhood home long enough. He would never be subjected to that kind of torture again.   
  
Still feeling a little weak he took the stairs slowly and ambled up to where he thought his friends would be. Seeing as the Easter break had started after last Friday’s classes, some students had gone home to see their families. He and James had opted to stay as they knew Remus would be, due to the full moon taking place that very night. Peter had followed suit. This had been most of the reason Sirius had flirted his way into being released a little earlier than their matron usually would have allowed. If there was one thing he refused to miss, it was a full moon run. He always basked in the feeling of transforming into his animagus form. Things were much simpler as a dog.  
  
After he’d entered the common room to find a fair amount of students talking loudly amongst themselves, he made his way up the dormitory stairs to the left. Usually more than half the student body would go home for holidays. But as much as it didn’t seem like it at Hogwarts, they were all living through very dark times. Most parents were telling their children to stay where it was safe, for as long as they could. When he finally made it to the sixth year boys’ dorm he slammed the door open and strode in to see this three best friends awaiting him.  
  
‘There he is!’ James sung jumping off Remus’s bed and bounding over to him. ‘The prodigal son returns!’ He threw an arm around Sirius. The two of them were probably a little too comfortable with each other as it was. There had to be a line drawn at some point, but it didn’t look likely. There were never better friends known to have existed than James and Sirius. They met before they even clambered onto the Hogwarts Express, shared a carriage on the way there. It was James who inspired Sirius to oppose his family and ultimately defy the sorting hat’s choice to place him in Slytherin.  
  
James meant the absolute world to Sirius. He would do anything for him. And he knew James felt the exact same. They barely ever fought, and if they did it didn’t last more than thirty minutes tops. As he was subjected to a hair ruffle and dragged over to Remus’s bed where they dusted aside a few chocolate wrappers and joined the exhausted looking boy, Sirius was content again.   
  
He and Remus didn’t share as deep a connection as he and James. But barely anyone did, so it wasn’t a surprise. Remus was much less obnoxious than he and James and so provided a sense of reason for the two others. They were still both very fond of each other, and Sirius knew he’d fight anyone that tried to put Remus down. As he and James often did.   
  
Then there was Peter. They all liked Peter at this point of course, but it was very apparent when they first started hanging out with each other that Peter was just clinging to them because they provided a sense of security for the boy. Hanging out with James and Sirius meant Peter was part of the ‘cool’ group. That meant he wouldn’t be picked on, much like Remus. But it was quite evident that Remus had to be provoked to join them, mostly by James who wanted to open the boy up from the get go. Peter weaselled his way in by force. In the beginning Sirius was overly wary of him and gave him a hard time. But six years on and they were too close to one another to worry about what happened to start it all.   
  
‘You look dreadful.’ Sirius supplied sizing Remus up. Remus gave him a warning look.  
  
‘So do you.’ He threw back. Sirius loved the full moon. Not only did he get to transform into a dog and break a bunch of school rules and run around with a bloody werewolf, he also got to piss Remus off. And Remus would bite back this close to his transformation. Oh it was fun.  
  
‘Poppy seemed to think I looked dashing. Turned the charm on for the old bird so I could come join you tonight Moony, don’t be so cruel.’ He offered Remus his best puppy dog eyes. And they were  _good_. He had mastered them before he made the change from human to dog. Now it was just arrogant how well he pulled them off. But this close to the full moon, puppy dog eyes meant  _nothing._  
  
‘Get a bloody haircut Padfoot you look ridiculous.’ Remus quipped and turned his attention back to the star chart he was going over for their astronomy homework.  
  
Sirius was just about to drop his jaw in mock indignation when a few loose hairs fell out from behind his ear and dangled in front of his face blocking his view. Remus had a point. His hair was longer than some of the girls at the school now. But he couldn’t help it. He had been forced for so many years to keep his hair tidy and at a respectable length. He had to uphold the Black family name of course. Now that he’d been disinherited by his dear old mother, he took that as his cue to see exactly how long he could get it.  
  
‘Nah, I’m working on getting it long enough for Evans to braid.’ The evil look that contorted on his face as he turned to James was met with anger.  
  
‘She’s not going to touch your stupid hair.’ James sounded resolute. His hand betrayed his strong words as it travelled up and dug around in his untameable locks. Sirius just laughed at him, throwing his head forward and covering his face with long glossy strands of midnight black.  
  
‘Oh  _Lily_. Oh  _Lily_!’ Sirius hugged himself re-enacting the scene he’d woken James out of back in their fourth year. James groaned. He surely hoped his best friend had forgotten that, but Sirius never forgot blackmail material on James Potter.  
  
‘Well at least tie it back or something, you’re going to start walking into pillars like Prongs.’ Peter offered, leaving his clean space to their left and joining them on the floor near Remus’s bed, clearing away a few chocolate wrappers.   
  
‘Oh, I have an idea.’ Sirius’s brain lit up from the words. ‘Let’s go get me a hair tie from Evans’ dorm?’ He had an ulterior motive of course. ‘Have the girls gone home for the break? Prongs you could steal some of her knickers and put them in your bedside table to snuggle at night.’ He expected more of an uproar but James just laughed.  
  
‘We could give it a go.’ He replied.  
  
‘Moony could snag a pair of McKinnon’s.’ Sirius’ eyes narrowed in cheek as he surveyed Remus. Remus looked up from his star chart with a less than happy look.   
  
‘It’s forbidden for boys to go up to the girls dormitories.’ It was all he supplied before turning his attention back to the star chart.  
  
Sirius repeated him in the most mocking tone he could muster. ‘You sound like Adams.’ He added rolling his eyes. ‘James and I will go then. I’ll grab you a pair if I find any Moony, don’t be so glum. Coming Wormtail?’ Sirius pushed himself up off Remus’ bed with James close behind him. It was the holidays and they were bored. Why not? They passed the other dorm doors and made it to the stairs leading down to the common room. They had never had a reason to venture up to the girls dorms before. The three boys had gotten to the bottom of the stairs and made their way out of the doorway and across to the girls as quietly as possible.   
  
‘Ladies first?’ Sirius looked at Peter. Peter pulled a face.  
  
‘I’m not going up there first. What if we’re caught?’ He squeaked.  
  
‘You’re such a baby wormtail.’ Sirius rolled his eyes and stepped forward. He’d made his way up around a quarter of the steps before suddenly the stairs flattened underneath him and he only narrowly managed to turn to fall on his back before sliding down to the bottom. James was drawing an unwanted amount of attention to them as he couldn’t help the loud laughter shaking his entire body now.  
  
‘Shut up Prongs!’ Sirius spat rubbing his backside as he lifted himself from the floor by the bannister. When they turned around the girl’s staircase was no longer a staircase. It instead resembled a large stone slide. They watched as the stairs, beginning at the top, one by one began popping back up into stairs again. Sirius turned to James and the idea seemed to hit them both at once.   
  
‘Gryffindor slide!’ James screamed and everyone in the common room, were they not already, turned to them.  
  
It was half an hour later when Remus had begrudgingly decided to see what the boys were up to, that he found them and every other Gryffindor in the common room lining up at the girl’s staircase with cushions from the lounges. They had come up with a system. If girls wanted to ride they would climb to the top and a boy would step onto the last stair when they were ready. The boys were all taking it as a competition to see how many stairs they could climb before they were thrown back down.  
  
There was so much laughter and shouting that Remus was even smiling by the time he got to the boys.  
  
‘I thought I said it was forbidden.’ Remus spoke when he reached Sirius. James was currently almost halfway up the stairs, cushion in front of him ready to throw it down when the stairs changed.  
  
‘You never said it would be fun though.’ Sirius winked at him before handing a cushion to a third year girl that went beet red taking it from him as James slid down passed them. Sirius instructed the girl to climb the stairs and get ready before he jumped on.  
  
Peter was instructing the other students to go to the back of the line after they came down. Of course the boys were taking full advantage of having created the sport and letting themselves take precedence at the front. Remus just ignored the rule breaking and took a seat near the fireplace and basked in the noise, it calmed him.  
  
By the time everyone was particularly worn out, dinner was started down stairs and the remaining Gryffindor’s all made their way out together. A few of the younger girls all seemed to linger around Sirius as he walked with James. Peter and Remus pulling up the rear.  
  
‘But you’re okay now aren’t you?’ One of the young girls asked Sirius. He bored of girls very easily. None of them really seemed to captivate him.  
  
‘Yeah, don’t worry. Fighting fit.’ He entertained them as they all turned to each other and giggled. That was one of the things that made him want to distance himself from the female cohort. The giggling. Did girls do anything else in his presence? Certainly not. Giggling was a bloody rite of passage to girls. He held a deep sense of respect for the girls that spoke to him that  _didn’t_  giggle. Evans being one. Marlene and Mary weren’t too bad anymore. But boy they used to be bloody terrible when they were all younger. The other two girls they shared a dorm with, Sirius didn’t ever bother going near, as they were as bad as the first years.  
  
‘You know, we can go on Hogsmeade visits this year.’ Another of the third year’s offered and he heard James snigger beside him at what was clearly a date proposal from a thirteen year old. He was seventeen…  
  
‘Hogsmeade’s old news.’ He brushed off grabbing James. ‘Excuse us ladies. We have to duck into the little boys’ room.’ He winked at them and dragged James off onto the first floor and hoped Remus and Peter would follow.   
  
James burst into laughter. ‘Sirius will you accompany me to Madam Puddifoot’s?’ James teased as they slipped into a classroom waiting for the girls to pass. Peter and Remus wondered in confused.  
  
‘Padfoot’s getting proposals from thirteen year olds again.’ James explained as Sirius rolled his eyes and peered around the classroom door. He smacked James upside the head and dragged him back out now the coast was clear. The four boys made their way down to the great hall to where they usually occupied the end of the Gryffindor table furthest from the teachers. James sat across from Sirius with Peter beside him and Sirius sat beside Remus, making sure he was on the end so to thwart any of the girls from seeking to join them. It was a hassle he didn’t overly enjoy. But he’d gotten so used to the eager attitudes of the girls at the school he mostly ignored it these days. He had much more important things to focus on. Like getting into trouble with his mates.  
  
‘We won’t be far behind you tonight Moony.’ James lowered his voice to talk about this subject.  
  
‘Yeah. Can’t wait to stretch my legs.’ Peter raised his arms over his head in a stretch and Sirius barked out a laugh.  
  
‘Yes. Those stumpy little legs. Do stretch them. They might get even shorter.’ Peter shot Sirius a glare at his words to which Sirius just grinned lazily in return.  
  
‘We can’t all be omens of death.’ Peter snuffed at him and piled some more mash potato on his plate, taking a large serving of gravy with it. The vegetables around the boys went quite untouched. Remus had attempted to tackle some, but they still sat uneaten on his plate. He wasn’t really in the mood to be trying anyway.  
  
‘I am  _not_  a death omen. I’m a fierce black hound!’ Sirius’ voice was raised but they were still speaking in hushed tones.  
  
‘You’re adorable mate. Don’t worry.’ James spoke between spoonfuls of his beef casserole. Sirius hated this argument. He always lost.  
  
‘I’m  _not_  adorable. I’m  _a fierce black hound_.’ As he finished Remus just pat him on the shoulder.  
  
‘Sure, sure fluffy. No one doubts you.’ It was at that point that Sirius wasn’t happy that moody moony was rearing his head. He grumbled under his breath as they ate and Peter and James discussed the routes they would take out of Hogsmeade and through the forbidden forest. They never bloody teased Peter for being  _cute_. But then again it was really only select people that found rats cute. Who in their right minds didn’t like dogs? Dogs were great. Sirius knew he lucked out there. James couldn’t very well transform and gallivant around much as a bleeding stag. But he and Peter could. And Peter often took more advantage of it than he.   
  
As the boys finished their dinners and headed up to the dorms Remus was getting snappier and snappier and they told him to go and take a nap before the moon got to its peak and Madam Pomfrey would need to collect him. The other boys left him be and gathered in the common room shouting stories back and forth and laughing loudly. Once Remus had left to find the matron, heaving his breaths and shaking as he usually did this close to the moon the boys ventured up to the dorm to get themselves ready.   
  
They always waited a little while for the common room to clear out and also so Remus could transform and calm down before they joined him. While he wasn’t a threat to them as animals, he still packed one hell of a wallop and they definitely didn’t want to threaten the wolf for fear of gashes that they had received in the early stages before they learnt exactly how to go about interacting with him. It wasn’t always a bed of roses. But now that they had been doing it for well over a year it was honestly nothing but fun. Even Remus had to admit the boys’ presence certainly calmed him.  
  
They decided that it was too dangerous tonight to go down without James’ cloak as Filch would have been on the prowl as it was holidays.  
  
‘Wormtail can you transform now? It’ll be easier to fit with you in my pocket.’ James said, flicking out his prized possession. Peter nodded and started to shrink into his clothing, his body contorting until he dropped to the floor and James bent down to scoop him up. ‘Ready?’ James looked over at Sirius and he nodded. They left the dorm with the invisibility cloak over them and navigated their way out of the castle and onto the grounds. When they got close to the whomping willow they set Peter down and he made for the knot in the tree.  
  
Sirius transformed now but James always waited until they were in the tunnel to do so. Navigating his antlers around the tree roots was just far too hard. By the time they’d made it all the way to the end, Peter taking refuge on James’ hide after he adopted his stag form, they heard the howls coming from above them. The large black dog that was Sirius pushed through into shack and the other two weren’t far behind.  
  
They found Remus quite quickly and the pathetic looking wolf was howling and sulking in a corner, where he had blood coming from his leg already. He attacked himself much less now that the boys could transform and provide him with something to do other than digging at the walls and running into the furniture. He reacted to them instantly his ears picking up and his head lowering.  
  
Sirius just bounded forward at him and barked, wagging his tail. Remus moved towards Sirius and James’ trot over to join them. He was always a bit of a queen whilst transformed. Last full moon he had lost his antlers for the first time. Boy was that a sight to see. He spent a good half an hour dashing around making a high pitched wining until Remus grew tired of him and smacked him. It threw him clean across the room. Sirius had barked in laughter while Wormtail had been on his back watching the scene take place. James was still sour about it even now.   
  
His little buttons were growing back nicely now as Remus inspected them, sniffing the dog first before moving on to the stag.  It didn’t take him long to agree to the appearance of friends. Though slightly frightening and gaunt in appearance, Remus wasn’t a threat to them as they were. Sirius happily led them out through the tunnel and they embarked on their ‘run’ as they referred to it. Remus followed behind Sirius and James’ galloped behind them. The boys lavished in this freedom. They had learnt so much about Hogwarts whilst on these runs. As Sirius led them towards the edges of the ground and bordering the forest where they wouldn’t be a threat, he turned and tackled Remus playfully. They rustled around as James joined them and Peter scurried to the top of his head and jumped off on the ground.   
  
Though Remus wasn’t in his right mind at present, he was happy. Transformations had always been an affliction of pain and horror for him. These days the werewolf wasn’t alone and terrified, he had things to occupy him. His thoughts became less animalistic and more akin to his own. James snorted loudly and nuzzled his head into the wolf and Remus’s paw came at him, scratching playfully. Sirius barked as Peter climbed up onto his back and they followed behind him as he led the way once more. The boys tackled and played until the wee hours of the morning when the moon light would die and Remus would shift back. They then escorted him to the hospital wing under the cloak. They would always return the following day to check on him, bring him chocolate, and cheer him up. Always.


	17. Marlene's initiative

‘Snog him.’ Mary implored as the girls sat on their respective beds, stomach down with their heads towards the end so better to face each other.   
  
‘Mary!’ Lily shouted with a giggle. ‘Poor Lupin would have a heart attack. He’s weak enough as it is.’ She shook her head at her dark haired friend and looked over at Marlene.  
  
‘I mean. I could.’ Marlene shrugged. ‘Let’s be honest. Lupin certainly isn’t bad to look at, we all know that. I mean he’s no Sirius Black, but Black is far too in love with Potter to consider anyone else. We all established that in third year.’ Marlene contemplated aloud.  
  
‘Oh gosh, can you imagine? He would literally faint.’ Mary was laughing loudly now.  
  
‘She is right though.’ Lily agreed. ‘I’ve caught him loads of times looking over at you all  _longingly_.’ She let her girly side rear its head when they were in the comfort of their dorm. They had been discussing how Mary had caught Lupin looking at Marlene  _again_  in their charms class today. He was definitely trying to hide it, but oh he was  _failing_.   
  
‘He’s definitely cute for a boy.’ Mary pointed out with a huge grin.  
  
‘He is.’ Marlene nodded, a smile forming. ‘Ugh. When the back of his hair gets a little longer between terms and he-‘  
  
‘-ties it at the nape of his neck!’ Lily finished for her and they all laughed. Marlene bit her lip. Oh she definitely could snog Lupin.   
  
‘When he wears those tattered old beanies on visits to Hogsmeade.’ Lily said with a little sigh at the end which Marlene joined in on. Mary squealed.  
  
‘He definitely likes you. It’s so obvious.’ She continued after her outburst.  
  
‘Then why hasn’t he asked me out?’ Marlene frowned. ‘I’d say yes. What gives?’ The girls all seemed to contemplate this for some time.   
  
‘Maybe he’s just shy?’ Mary offered.   
  
‘I dunno. I wouldn’t really use shy to describe him. He’s a bit more reserved than the other boys, but Potter and Black are the loudest bastards at this school. Lupin’s just normal.’ Lily added with a scrunched up expression of disdain at her mention of Potter.  
  
‘Stop it.’ Marlene pointed at her and shook her head.  
  
‘What?’ Lily was trying to hide her smile now.  
  
‘You know damn well what. You definitely like Potter. Hurry up and get over this crap about him being a ‘toerag’ as you like to say, and go out with him.’ Marlene had sat up now. This discussion was very important. It needed higher ground.  
  
‘You could go on a double date!’ Mary shouted and they both shushed her. ‘Well you could.’ She offered at a more acceptable decibel.   
  
‘What about Mary?’ Marlene thought placing a finger to her chin.  
  
‘You could try Black?’ Lily put forth. Both Marlene and Mary shook their heads at this.  
  
‘Not my type.’ Mary smirked.  
  
‘You know, I wonder about Black sometimes. Maybe he’s gay.’ Marlene mused. ‘I mean, every girl at this school’s just about willing to throw their flower at him so to speak and the guy has no time for any of them. Has he even kissed anyone?’ Marlene seemed to go deep into thought after that.  
  
‘Yeah.’ Mary nodded recalling the memory. ‘A few actually. He gets a little handsy when they get into the firewhisky in their dorm. I’m sure a few girls in the older grades have taken advantage of it.’ Both Lily and Marlene hummed in agreement at that.  
  
‘I’m sure Anna Cox was parading around that she made out with him too.’ Lily spoke remembering something about it towards the start of the year.  
  
‘Gross.’ Marlene shook her head. ‘I loathe those girls. Such clique-y little harlots.’ Marlene’s face turned into a disgusted frown. Mary burst out laughing and both the others turned to her in wonder.  
  
‘No!’ she shouted clutching her sides. ‘No! I heard about that!’ Both Lily and Marlene turned to each other bemused, their beds being together and Mary’s being beside Lily’s. When Mary finally calmed down she looked positively bursting with pleasure.  ‘Bloody Bulstrode in Slytherin hexed Sirius with a hair loss curse and snagged his hairs. He got into the polyjuice potion we we’re brewing. You know how some went missing?’ Lily and Marlene put the rest together instantly and before long they had tears in their eyes they were laughing so hard.  
  
‘Oh dear  _lord_!’ Lily exclaimed. ‘Why haven’t we heard about this before now?’ She managed to get out. Marlene was still laughing far too hard. Their laughter had ruptured Mary’s resolve and she was shaking all over again.   
  
‘I heard it from Black actually. That day when he sat with me so Potter could grab the seat beside you?’ At Mary’s words Lily remembered when Potter had sat beside her. She expected more of his terrible pickup lines or at least a lot of instances that she’d want to hex him. But he was actually quite tolerable. He did seem to be growing up. From time to time. Then he was also a little brute that still enjoyed getting into far too much trouble with Black. She had noticed however that lately it was mostly Sirius serving detentions, and she found that odd.   
  
‘This should have been front page news!’ Marlene announced.   
  
‘He actually had more to say about Adams than that come to think of it.’ Mary’s face went blank as she explored the memory. ‘Yeah. Said she blew his sausage up.’  
  
‘She  **what**?’ Marlene screeched holding back laughter for Mary’s reply. Mary  _did_  laugh at her wording when she realised how questionable that sentence had sounded.  
  
‘No! Like she caught him coming from the kitchens and blew up a sausage he had in his mouth. He said he was impressed and so he outed Cox when she was being nasty to her.’ Her words were filled with little hitches in her breath as she tried to keep her laughter at bay.   
  
‘Oh lord, I really like Adams.’ Lily smiled thinking about how funny it would have been to see her blowing up a sausage in the resident-school-heartthrob’s mouth.  
  
‘She’s a little rough around the edges, so to speak.’ Mary replied, thinking back to the day she had been shaken by the prefect. Adams had gotten obsessive over the boys' missing meals and being absent from the common room and had taken it out on her.  
  
‘Come to think of it, what  _were_ the boys up to when they kept going missing?’ Mary enquired looking at Lily. Marlene still seemed to be laughing at the idea of Sirius covered in sausage particles.  
  
‘We never found out.’ Lily shrugged. ‘Adams and I teamed up a few times to track them down, granted she was doing it on her own almost twenty-four-seven anyway. But no matter how hard we tried we couldn’t find them. Then after a while they started turning up at meals again. And James seems to be popping up unexpectedly even more nowadays.’ She sighed.  
  
When she looked up at Mary and Marlene, however, both had wicked smiles decorating their faces.  
  
‘I'm sorry, who now?’ Marlene queried. Lily’s hand darted up to her mouth at her realized slip-up.  
  
‘Oh  _James_.’ Mary moaned, rolling around on her bed.  
  
‘James,  _James_.’ Marlene joined her, curling her bed sheet around herself, making a little cocoon and writhing around in it.  
  
‘Touch me,  _James_!’ Mary shouted. Lily tried and failed to calm them down. They taunted her for her slip of words for a good five minutes before all three of them were laughing.  
  
‘Hey, we’ve gone completely off topic here.’ Lily chastised. ‘Lupin. You need to snog Lupin.’  
  
‘Merlin, Lily. Got sex on the brain or something?’ Marlene added pursing her lips trying to keep herself stable.  
  
‘Should we go find  _James_  for you?’ Mary asked. She was rewarded with a pillow to the head.  
  
‘Both of you shut it!’ Lily crossed her arms over her chest and sulked.   
  
‘No, you’re right. Back to Lupin.’ Mary surrendered, brandishing her wand and using it to levitate her pyjamas to herself.  
  
She and Marlene knew their best friend would end up with Potter. Eventually. They knew it better than they knew how to use  _wingardium leviosa_. They knew it. The boys knew it. The whole school knew it. Lily most likely even knew it. Poor James was probably the only one that wasn’t certain. And that’s what Marlene and Mary worried about.  
  
Although he never showed any signs of giving up, if she kept turning him down he might lose interest. Maybe he would have pissed off and snogged someone else? They couldn’t have that. It had nothing to do with the ongoing bets they had with other students and teachers alike.  
  
‘What if Lily and I talk to him?’ She directed her attention away from the Potter-Evans situation. Lily seemed to contemplate it. Marlene just shook her head.  
  
‘Nope. You know what? Toss you Lily, I’ll show you what being a Gryffindor means. I’m just going to march right up to him and snog him where he stands. See what he says to that.’ Marlene had always been the gutsiest of the girls in her dorm. It was probably true that she was the gutsiest of all the Gryffindor girls combined.  
  
She had the most guys on her belt. She had dated a seventh year when they were in fourth year. She had courage to spare. She was a McKinnon. And the McKinnon’s we’re a proud family, indeed. Even if she was completely, and totally rubbish at transfiguration and probably potions. She made up for it with witty repartee and guts.  
  
‘You would  _not_.’ Lily gaped. Lily was courageous too, but certainly not in the same ways as her pretty blonde friend. She had courage to hex James Potter and Sirius Black when they were being little tyrants. She had courage when Severus had called her a filthy name. She denied him forgiveness for such an act the night he had demanded Mary fetch her saying he would sleep outside of their common room. She was brave. She lived up to her house name. But oh she did not hold a candle to Marlene in the way on sexual gregariousness. Did anyone?  
  
Marlene flashed her a wicked smile and both the girls knew then, it was set in motion. Poor Lupin. He had no idea what he had just gotten himself into by glancing Marlene’s way once too many today. Mary started laughing at the look on the blonde’s face. A wickeder stare could not have been matched by a Slytherin.  
  
‘He’s going to faint. I’ll bet on it. The guy is literally going to drop dead. You’re a hazard.’ Mary shook her head.   
  
‘He’s going to love it. I’ll corner him. I’ll snog him. I might even let him cop a feel.’ Marlene nodded like that was the end of the matter. They were all seventeen year old's. They had urges. Why not?  
  
‘Do you think he would? I feel like he’s a bit too polite for that?’ Lily wondered getting a sort of swirling sensation low in her throat at the idea. It would be nice to have a good old fashioned snog, she thought. It had been a long time since she’d had one herself. Her latest recollections of even coming close, being of the foul git Aubrey and him trying to force himself on her the night of the last Slug Club party. She shivered at the memory.  
  
‘What’s wrong, Lil?’ Mary asked, noticing her withdrawal.  
  
‘Just thinking of that tosser, Aubrey.’ Lily sighed. Marlene and Mary both burst into laughter.  
  
‘Him and his fat head.’ Marlene spat, laughing viciously.  
  
‘I swear it’s still bigger to this day. He keeps complaining about it to Flitwick, I heard him once after charms.’ Mary wiped away a stray tear of joy.  
  
Lily smirked at that. As much of a disgusting arse that Aubrey was, he certainly did get a serving back that night. She had felt bad that the boys had to serve two detentions for that. But Adams had told her she’d gone easy on them. They pretty much just sat and discussed Aubrey’s fat head amongst themselves while Adams supervised their ‘strenuous’ cleaning out of a couple of broom closet’s. Adams had even let them serve them together. It was the first time she’d seen the younger prefect go easy on  _anyone_  for breaking a school rule.   
  
As Lily thought to herself that she should really have thanked Black and Potter for that, Adams too, the last of their dorm mates returned from the common room. They let their conversation pertaining the boys die, as they knew the other two girls would certainly ark up and spread whatever they heard. They were two of the girls that liked to stare dreamily at Black when he wasn’t, or even was, looking. Which was probably why they had been down in the common room so long.  
  
They all bid each other goodnight after they changed into their pyjamas and Lily fell asleep with James Potter in her thoughts.

*

The following day Lily, Mary and Marlene were sitting in the common room waiting for their unsuspecting victim after classes, and just before dinner. Marlene was starting to get impatient. They had caught Lupin looking over at her again in herbology and she’d even smiled and waved at him. He just flushed pink and turned away like he didn’t know he’d been caught. As James, Sirius and Peter all clambered through the portrait hole, Marlene huffed.  
  
‘What the hell? Go ask your boyfriend where he is, Lily.’ Marlene shot at her. Lily made to protest but Mary just kicked her out of her chair.  
  
‘Potter!’ Lily gave in, knowing it was for the greater good of getting her friend a snog. James whirled around at record speed to meet her and she pulled up short. She always forgot how on the ball his reflexes were thanks to the hours he spent on the quidditch pitch. Thinking of him in his quidditch gear made her expression falter a little but she tried to dismiss it.  
  
‘Why Evans, have you decided to save a broom?’ Oh he  _was_ on the ball today. And he was giving her a wicked grin, matched only by the one on Sirius's face, beside him.  
  
‘What?’ As soon as Lily encouraged them she wanted to smack herself.  
  
‘And ride a quidditch player of course?’ James waggled his eyebrows at her behind his glasses and she had to honestly stop herself from laughing. She couldn’t navigate her way around smiling, so she did the next best thing, and whipped her wand out and flicked it at him. Removing his glasses with the  _accio_ charm not only blocked her smile from his vision, it payed him back for the terrible pick up line. She grabbed them and turned to Sirius.  
  
‘Black.’ She continued after James made a dive for the glasses, missing completely. ‘Where is the fourth member of your gang?’  
  
‘Gang?’ Sirius contemplated this. ‘Gosh Prongs, we  _are_  a bit of a gang, aren’t we?’   
  
‘Yeah, mate.’ James tried for his glasses again but Lily just stepped aside and he hit the deck again. ‘Mum wouldn’t approve at all.’ He muffled out from the floor.  
  
‘I disagree.’ Peter snatched the glasses from Lily sneakily when her attention was averted.  
  
‘Yeah, I reckon she’d prepare us snacks.’ Sirius concluded as Peter returned James’ glasses to him and helped him to his feet.  
  
‘Just tell me where Lupin is you prat’s.’ Lily shook her head, exasperated already.  
  
‘What? Why? Why do you want to know where Moony is? What’s going on?’ James was fixing his glasses on his face looking all flustered. His free hand then went immediately to his hair and ruffled it up quite terribly.  
  
‘Keep your pants on, Potter. Marls wants to see him.’ Lily rolled her eyes and tried desperately to hide her smirk of satisfaction. James had definitely just lost his cool over her wanting to locate one of his friends.  
  
‘Ah. Yes. She’s noticed that has she?’ Sirius craned around from where they were standing to see Marlene. He nodded slightly to her with a charming grin. ‘Dear old Moony. He’s a bit smitten. Won’t admit to it of course.’  
  
‘We’ve noticed.’ Lily turned to Sirius now, decided he would be the easiest one to get it out of. ‘Marls is going to surprise him.’ Lily let her face contort into the wicked grin she’d been holding back. Sirius knew this grin all too well. He was instantly intrigued.  
  
‘Everyone likes a surprise.’ Sirius surveyed her cautiously. Lily nodded.  
  
‘What’s the surprise?’ James asked beside them, looking between the two. Lily had to honestly fight from launching herself on James at that point. He had never looked cuter.  _But he is an arrogant little prat!_  Or, at least, that’s what she yelled at herself inwardly to contain her emotions.  
  
‘I have one condition though, Evans, for this valuable information.’ Sirius puffed up importantly.  
  
‘Hey! No conditions with Evans!’ James interjected.  
  
‘What’s the condition?’ Lily ignored James and smiled at Sirius. Of course she would agree, even to Sirius, if it meant annoying James Potter.  
  
‘Braid my hair?’ Sirius smiled suggestively as James’ jaw dropped.  
  
‘I thought I told you-‘  
  
‘Sure thing.’ Lily smiled easily as James actually punched Sirius after being cut off and generally ignored by the two.  
  
‘He’s in the library.’ Peter offered tiring of the conversation.  
  
‘He’s with Adams, I think.’ Sirius added pushing his best friend off himself easily. ‘She helps him with his homework or something, not overly sure.’  
  
‘Oh. They’re not- a thing, are they?’  
  
‘No!’ Lily was affronted by Sirius’s quick reply. She blinked at him a few times. ‘Ah, no. No they’re just mates, I’m sure of it.’ Sirius was back to his casual manner so quickly she thought she must have hallucinated it. The others didn’t seem to notice it either as James was now pushing Sirius around trying to annoy him.   
  
‘Right. Well, thanks.’ Lily took the boy’s play-fighting as an opportunity to make a clean break and bounced over to the girls. ‘He’s in the library. Go get ‘em.’ Lily winked and Marlene got up and made her way to the common room exit, a wide smile on her face as she passed the boys with a salute. Sirius was the only one to return it as James seemed to be too involved in telling him off and Peter wasn’t facing her.  
  
As she climbed down the stairs she passed Adams on her way. The younger girl was muttering something about “useless bloody prefect. Can’t even copy notes properly.” To which she ignored. Adams was certainly a far sight better than her dorm mates, but she was very odd and highly strung. Mostly people tended to dodge her in the hallways. Or rather, girls did. The boys would always take their chances with her, as she was fairly pretty.   
  
By the time she got to the library she ducked in trying to avoid the moody librarian. She navigated her way through the maze of books and tried to locate the boy she had on her mind. It wasn’t until she got to literally the back of the library that she found him. He seemed to be lost in thought. He was staring at a space above him that held nothing worth attention. She cleared her throat, her determination keen.  
  
Remus looked as if he’d seen a ghost. Or, well, something scarier than a ghost. Colour drained from his lightly scarred face and he looked around attempting to gather up his books.  
  
‘Remus I was wondering if I could speak to you for a moment?’ Marlene spoke with confidence as she slipped into the chair beside him and pushed him back into his seat in the process. Remus did note the informality of his name and the close proximity forced the colour to return to his face, and then some.   
  
‘Uh, s- sure.’ His bright eyes were darting around trying to focus on something.  
  
‘Well. I’ve noticed you looking at me.’ Marlene was straight to the point. No fluffing around with niceties with her. ‘A lot.’ She added and Remus stopped trying to look around and fixed his wide eyes on her.  
  
‘Y- you have?’ She couldn’t help but smile at that. He thought he’d been discreet, but oh he had not. She nodded. He seemed to be lost for words now.   
  
‘I think it would be wise for you to kiss me.’ She said this like it was the most casual thing in the world.  
  
‘I b-beg your pardon?’ He was too bloody polite for his own good. Marlene sighed and grabbed him behind his head and pulled his lips to hers. It really would have been a most awkward exchange if he had protested, but thankfully after the initial shock, he did not. He certainly did not. Marlene wasn’t sure what it was that came over him but he indulged her quite willingly.  
  
As she crashed her lips into his, he didn’t pull back once. He froze for a second, then copied her and turned his body into a more compatible position. His hand cupped the back of her head, and he opened his mouth to deepen the kiss. He was better at this than she thought he would have been.  
  
She cheered in her head at her choices winning out as his hand came to rest under her jaw and his tongue brushed against hers. She didn’t know what it was that seemed to awaken in him, but he got dominant quite quickly and pulled back, lifting her without a word from her chair and replacing her on the desk. There wasn’t a moment lost before he returned to her lips and she happily snaked her arms up around his neck and screamed inwardly when his hands rested on her hips. Then, just as his hands started to travel upwards, all of a sudden he stopped, pulled back from their intimate connection and stared at her.   
  
‘Sorry. Uh- Just… sorry.’ He was still close enough for her to grab him. Which she did before he could withdraw any further.  
  
‘What are you saying sorry for? This is fantastic!’ At her words his face seemed to change instantly from one of horror at his own actions, to something akin to abashed joy. Marlene grabbed him again and pulled him into her body.   
  
They vaguely heard something crash to the floor close by but both occupants of the progressively inappropriate kiss were too involved in each other to care. Marlene slipped one leg around Remus’s back and pulled him closer into her body and felt goose bumps erupt all over her skin when his hands travelled up to her waist. Remus Lupin was severely underestimated in the way of snogging that was for sure. 


	18. Remus's Kiss

Ali had found little things intriguing her lately about her new found friend. He seemed to be joining her in the library more and more, but mostly he would stare blankly ahead with a smile. She didn’t pay much attention to it. Or at least, she tried not to. Remus was a very kind soul. Soft mannered and pleasant to be around. She found herself gravitating towards his presence more and more. As they sat in the library today it was no different from usual. She had a few of her texts out and so did Remus. She was copying relevant notes out of her  _unfogging the future_  text for her divinations assignment. Remus had his own text out for his potions and care of magical creatures work.   
  
As she looked up from her parchment at Remus, he had a very vacant expression on his face and he’d barely changed since they sat down. Usually it would have annoyed her that someone could sit so passively and waste time doing nothing of importance when they needed to study. Ali’s OWLs were coming up at the end of term so she was starting to feel the pressure. But Remus should have been getting prepared for his NEWTs. Even if they weren’t for another year, they were the most important tests a wizard would ever take and Ali found it insulting that he seemed to be more transfixed on the dust particles floating above their heads than the notes he should have been writing.   
  
When she looked down at this parchment he had been unknowingly copying out a random selection of scripts. He’d copied down part of her divinations text, part of his own potions and care of magical creature’s text and then also a few of the covers of the other books scattered around the table. It was an absolute mess. The corner of Ali’s mouth twitched.  
  
‘Ah. Remus?’ She spoke, staring at where his quill hovered above the parchment. He didn’t reply. ‘Remus!’ She all but shouted.  
  
Remus shook himself out of his trance and looked over at her. She raised a curious brow. It certainly felt like she was developing some kind of feelings for this idiot. She couldn’t describe it. He was the first person that seemed to take an interest in her. He was kind to her. He listened to her rant on about Sirius on the days he was particularly foul natured. He was a wonderful friend.  
  
‘Are you alright?’ She nodded towards his notes. He looked down and realised what he’d been doing and bit his lip.  
  
‘Sorry. Mind’s in a different place today.’ He admitted contemplating what to do with the ruined parchment.  
  
‘Something you want to discuss?’ She enquired lightly, secretly hoping he would dish out whatever it was that was causing him to act so strangely. She wondered if perhaps his visiting her at her table was because he felt the same way. But Ali wasn’t really the types of person to pluck up the courage to ask. If he didn’t like her this unlikely friendship would become instantly awkward. And friends weren’t something she came by easily. She wasn’t even sure what liking someone really felt like. She’d worked so hard at distancing herself from the student body thanks to the dorm mates she landed that she never really entertained the idea of having something as bittersweet as a crush.   
  
Remus smiled somewhat goofily. ‘No. No not really.’ As he spoke the words his face dropped and with a sigh, he spoke again. ‘What’s your idea on monsters?’ He looked over at Ali and she drew up short.  
  
‘What do you mean?’ She had never been overly great with conversation matter when it came to those her own age. It was so much simpler talking to the older generation. She held nothing back with her parents who knew her all too well, her brother spoke whatever was on his mind, and the adults that she spoke to never toyed with philosophical subjects. They always asked her about her grades, her family life, and her ambitions. Things she found it most easy to answer. People her own age were fairly more complex to Aaliyah.  
  
‘Ah, well. Suppose a person wasn’t a  _good_  person.’ Remus tried to explain. Ali listened curiously as he continued. ‘They tried their best to be good. But they weren’t all good. Sometimes they did really terrible things.’  
  
‘Where is this going Remus?’ He seemed to be conflicted as he spoke and she was mildly concerned.  
  
‘Do you think they deserve to be happy? Even though sometimes they do really terrible things?’ It was a most strange question and she thought on it for a moment.   
  
‘Well I suppose it depends on what the person has done. Are these terrible things forgivable?’ She asked doing what she did best. Collecting evidence and choosing an answer based on the facts.   
  
‘No.’ Was Remus’s first answer. But then he adopted a defeated face. ‘Well,  _they_  don’t believe they should be forgiven. Others seem to think they’re redeemable.’  
  
‘Well… if other’s can see their worth then I’m sure it’s there. Whether a person believes they themselves are good or not has nothing to do with whether or not they  _are_ good.’ Ali thought about it carefully. ‘Some of the witches and wizards in Azkaban believe that they shouldn’t be in there if you think about it. They think the things they’ve done were the right things to do.’  
  
               ‘But from a third parties perspective they’re guilty. So if a third party believes this person is redeemable then surely they have goodness in them. Of course, you would have to be in possession of all the facts, and yes some things certainly are not forgivable. But even so, what’s to say that those that have done bad things aren’t redeemable? I suppose it’s only right that everyone has a chance to be happy.’ She thought over her words after she finished and nodded once in agreement. That sounded right and fair.  
  
‘What’s this about anyway? It sounds like a really curious topic for potions.’ Her face turned quizzical as she looked back at the older boy but he had a very serene expression now.  
  
‘That’s a nice way of putting it.’ He spoke with a smile. ‘Personally I don’t think they deserve to be happy so to speak. If they’re constantly doing bad things, they’re only going to hurt the people they’re closest to.’   
  
Ali wanted to argue what he was on about, but his hand dipped his quill back in his ink pot and he began scrawling notes again. Satisfied that he was studying once more she shrugged and copied his actions. An hour or so passed in silence as Ali fixated on the topic of divinations. It was her least favourite subject. But she took it with her cousin Misha, so she put up with it to spend time with her.   
  
By the time she broke out of her homework induced vigour and looked over at Remus, he was doing it again. Staring up at nothing with a soft smile on his lips. She looked over his notes, some of which read;  _To protect oneself from a kelpie one must stir once left then three times right then twice left then six times right and once that circle has been completed you must look beyond the tell-tale signs of the persons age line and into their marriage line_.  
  
‘Remus Lupin. To protect yourself from a kelpie you use a placement charm to place a bridle over their head. What on  _earth_  are you writing?’ She tutted and shook her head, she wasn’t even  _in_  care of magical creatures and she knew that. Remus once again realized what he was doing and scribbled his quill over the parchment.  
  
‘Honestly. I’m going upstairs to put my stuff away. I have rounds tonight after all. Pull yourself together man.’ She kept her disapproving manner until she had all of her things secured and bid her friend farewell. As she made her way out of the library she muttered to herself under her breath. She wasn’t even sure what she was muttering about until she realised it was mainly focused on Remus as she passed one of her fellow Gryffindor’s, McKinnon.   
  
Once she got to the portrait hole she remembered something. ‘Oh for fudge sake!’ She cursed aloud. Her bag had seemed a little too light and as she inspected its contents she had realised she’d left her  _unfogging the future_  text with Remus. She still had a few things that needed finishing off for her homework which she planned to do once her rounds were finished that night. So she made her way back down the stairs.   
  
She was unfortunately stopped by one Ravenclaw fifth year boy who she also shared divinations with. He was asking her about their assignment. But as soon as the topic took a turn towards their upcoming Hogsmeade trip she tuned out. By the time she realised he was still talking she’d missed more than half of his questions. She made up an excuse to dodge the unwanted small talk and ducked into the library and a smile came to her face when she thought about their Hogsmeade visit. Perhaps she could have gone along with Remus? It wasn’t unheard of to go there with your friends. Usually she ditched the trips unless there was something she needed in the way of supplies.   
  
With her mind being currently occupied with her happy thoughts she wasn’t even sure what she was seeing before it hit her in the face. She froze when she saw Remus pulling back from Marlene. He had her placed before him on the table right next to her divinations text. He was apologising and looking at her like a he’d accidently trodden on her toe. When Marlene replied enthusiastically and pulled him straight back into her body Remus didn’t look in the slightest worried about connecting lips in the  _library_.   
  
Without realising Ali took a step backwards and bumped into a shelf. A few books crashed to the floor around her and she gasped. She watched briefly as Marlene’s leg wrapped around Remus’s body and her hands combed through the back of his hair. When Remus’s hands started sliding up her waist is when Ali snapped out of her shock and made a run for it. She was nothing short of furious. They were making out in a  _library._  How  _dare_  they! Libraries were sacred place for  _learning_. It was rude. It was unorthodox. What were they thinking?!  
  
She had no idea why her throat felt like she’d just swallowed a rock cake whole. By the time she realised she was climbing the staircases she’d made it to the portrait hole again and was staring at the Fat Lady.  
  
‘Well?’ The Fat Lady stared back at her expectantly. Ali felt her eyes burning. She had no clue why she was feeling tears trail down her cheek. The Fat Lady looked almost worried. ‘Tears aren’t going to get you in. What’s the password?’  
  
‘Uh.’ Tears were free falling from her eyes now against her will. Why? She tried to tell herself it was because they were disrespecting the library. But as she backed away from the painting and her back came up against a wall, she slid down it and sat, dazed. She lifted up a hand and began to wipe away the water trails and counted in her head how long ago her last period was. Was she just emotional?  
  
She couldn’t really justify being this upset over the fact that Remus was kissing Marlene McKinnon. She wasn’t that irrational. She was logical and intelligent. She refused to believe that she was going to turn into some blithering idiot like her dorm mates. Remus Lupin held no rights to any of her feelings. None at all.   
  
It wasn’t until she heard the familiar voices of Anna Cox and Emily Clarke that she quickly got to her feet and scrambled out of sight. She waited for them to pass, not wanting to fuel Anna any more than she already had been. Her dorm mates had been particularly cold to her ever since she had outed Anna for snogging Ernie Bulstrode. Negating her way out of a screaming match with her at present wasn’t high on Ali’s to do list. Once they were a fair ways down the corridor she made her way over to the portrait once more.  
  
‘ _Factus Cobolorum_.’ She offered with a sniffle and the Fat Lady gave her a sympathetic look and opened without another word. Once she was in the common room she realised she was definitely looking worse for wear and more than half the Gryffindor student body were occupying any spare seats available.   
  
She vaguely noticed where Lily and her friend were sat with none other than the terrible trio. Sirius she noticed was sitting between the redheads legs on the floor while Lily was paying attention to his hair. James looked furious. She hoped beyond all reasoning that no one would notice her. She usually went unnoticed so there was a chance she could slip by. By the time she made it to the dormitory stairs she heard someone call out to her. She ignored it and took the stairs two at a time and when she entered her dorm, Bianca and Maria were gathered on the furthest bed away, discussing something probably relating to hair products or nails. Both subjects usually wouldn’t bother Aaliyah, but it was always tedious coming from them.  
  
She quickly drew her curtains shut and ignored their accusing stares. She uttered the muffliato charm through a crack towards the girls, it was a handy spell that had gotten around to all the students last year. It was an attempt to keep her brimming emotions secret from Bianca and Maria even though she knew they’d probably ignore her either way. She drew her knees up to her chin and hugged her legs trying to logically define why she was being so illogical. She kept coming up short. She rested her forehead on her knees and took solace in the current silence around her. 

*

  
Sirius was taking great pleasure in watching his best friend’s eye twitch as Evans combed her fingers through his hair. If there was ever a thing to bring the two people together, it was an affinity for taunting James Potter.  
  
‘Do you know Evans, I reckon you and I probably have the best hair in the school.’ Sirius was pretending not to notice James as his hand played with his wand not far from them.  
  
‘As conceited as that remark is, Black. I have to say you’re probably right. We do have fabulous hair, don’t we?’ Lily knew exactly what Sirius was doing. She had to admit it was incredibly humorous to watch James as he stared daggers at them both.  
  
‘We should start a club.’ Sirius smirked. ‘Hogwarts extra curriculum club for students with hair that billows in the wind. We can have meetings on relevant products and hair designs. Dumbledore’s in of course. And only those with most fabulous hair are allowed to join.’  
  
‘Well, guess that certainly rules you out doesn’t it Potter?’ Lily looked over at James whose face was twitching. His hand darted up to his hair and he was muttering something when Sirius noticed Adams coming through the portrait hole. He was about to dismiss it and return to taunting James, but then he noticed her wet cheeks glisten slightly from the firelight.  
  
‘Hey, what’s wrong with Adams?’ He spoke up and Lily’s hands stopped what they were doing with his hair.  
  
‘Oh, looks like she’s been crying.’ Lily said benevolently.   
  
‘Evans.’ Sirius pulled his head away from her fingers as Ali made her way through a few students and darted for the dorms. ‘Don’t you girls have some kind of code? Go help her.’  
  
‘Adams!’ Lily yelled out taking Sirius’s advice. ‘Ugh, no use.’ She looked back at Mary who was going over a few pointers with Peter at the low table beside them.  
  
‘Mary? Should we go see if she’s okay?’ Lily enquired not knowing how much place they held to really go after someone they didn’t really talk to all that often.  
  
‘Uh, I don’t know. She’s not really the sort to lavish in attention. I think she’d probably rather be alone.’ Mary shrugged beside Peter.  
  
‘Rubbish.’ Sirius spoke up. ‘You girls love emotions and stuff don’t you? It’s like you’re favourite thing to talk about.’ Lily swatted Sirius as he got to his feet.  
  
‘Keep it up Black and I’ll evict you from the fabulous hair club.’ Lily warned.   
  
‘Hogwarts extra curriculum club for students with hair that billows in the wind.’ He corrected. ‘And you can’t evict the club president Evans.’  
  
‘It’s okay Padfoot, I’ll take your place.’ James offered as Sirius took a seat beside him on the lounge where James had been occupying the armrest as a seat.  
  
‘Pfft, fat chance Potter.’ And with a flick of her glorious hair, Lily had turned around and was making her way to the dorm stairs. Even if Mary wasn’t as inclined towards helping out someone in need, Lily had a kind nature about her that forced her to investigate. She wanted to make sure the younger prefect was okay, at the very least.   
  
When she got to the fifth years door, she knocked. It didn’t take long for it to open and the short form of Maria Anthony to be staring back at her through her thick glasses.  
  
‘What do you want Evans?’ Lily had never had a good rapport with the fifth year girls. It didn’t matter if she was nice to them or not, they all held a lot of contempt towards her. Some girls were so spiteful.  
  
‘Is Adams in here?’ She asked looking inside. Maria sighed loudly and left the doorway without another word. Lily slipped inside and examined the room briefly before deciding Adams bed had to be the one with the curtains drawn. She made her way over and pulled them back enough to look in.  
  
‘Hey, are you okay?’ Lily asked looking at where Adams was curled up towards her pillows. She jolted up in shock at the sound of Lily’s voice and Lily just climbed onto the bed and pulled the curtains closed behind her. Adams started to desperately wipe the tears from her face.  
  
‘Uh, yeah. Just being stupid.’ She tried to smile but Lily wasn’t that easy to deceive.   
  
‘Did you want to talk to someone about it? I mean, you’ve had to listen to me cry over Severus. I’d like to return the favour.’ She tried to lighten the mood and Adams seemed to take the bait, coughing out a laugh and wiping away more stray tears.  
  
‘Honestly it’s ridiculous. I’m just being silly.’  
  
‘Well, once I cried because my sister kept poking her tongue out at me every time I tried to talk to her after I got my Hogwarts letter. Just burst into tears in the hallway because I just wanted to play with her and she wouldn’t stop poking out her bloody tongue.’ Lily huffed at the thought. Watching her flare up so much over something so trivial made Ali cough out another laugh.  
  
‘I’m sure whatever it is can’t be sillier than that. I cried until my parents found us and then some.’ Lily reminisced.   
  
‘Well.’ Adams seemed to contemplate her reply for a while. She clearly wasn’t used to opening up to Lily, but it seemed there wasn’t much of a choice. ‘I just… please don’t tell anyone about this.’ She spoke whilst lifting her wand back up, looking through the crack again, and casting the  _muffliato_  charm once more. Lily seemed to be mildly humour by this. Adams looked a little confused by that, she was none the wiser to the fact that it was Lily that had spread the charm around. As well as a few of the others her old friend had created.   
  
‘Go on.’ Lily persuaded.   
  
‘It’s honestly stupid. I think I had a bit of a-‘ she felt beyond ridiculous admitting it, ‘-well. A crush.’   
  
‘Oh. On Sirius Black?’ Lily questioned.   
  
‘No!’ All traces of her tears literally dried up at that. ‘Merlin, no! Why on earth… no.’ She was shaking her head and Lily just laughed.  
  
‘Sorry! Sorry! I just- well everyone has a crush on him at some point. And- well never mind.’ Lily tried to keep her smile at bay. Most people thought the younger prefect had it out for Sirius because she had a thing for him. But that was mostly due to the way Sirius treated her each time he was caught.  
  
‘I will never in my life understand why  _anyone_  would actively enjoy that moron.’ She looked as if she’d gotten a dirty sock flavoured Bertie Bott’s bean.  
  
‘Well, he does have a certain charm about him.’ Lily pondered aloud thinking about running her fingers through his soft hair. ‘But his hair is getting  _way_  too long. But forget about Black. Who was it?’  
  
‘Uh.’ Adams seemed to find comfort in staring at her wand as she rolled it between her fingers. ‘L-Lupin.’  
  
Lily went quiet. As soon as the name had left Adams lips she felt  _horrible_. Whatever the girl was crying about was related to her previous actions. ‘But Black said you- he said- I’m going to kill him.’   
  
‘Not that I’m not all for that, but I highly doubt Black has knowledge of anything relating to me. Why he would answer for me on any subject is injudicious.’ She looked offended.  
  
‘No. I’m so sorry Adams. What happened? Was it Marlene? Did you see them together?’  
  
‘How did you know that? Am I the only idiot that didn’t know they were a thing?’ Ali’s face faltered when she realised how stupid she’d been.  
  
‘They weren’t. It’s just, you’re not in our classes. He’s been staring at Marls for months now. We- this is my fault. I’m so sorry. I told her to go and find him.’ Lily was practically ready to slap herself.  
  
‘Calm down Evans. I’m going to live. It was honestly a stupid notion in the first place. I’m not the type of girl to go lusting after someone. This is a good thing.’ Adam’s was quick to react to Lily’s words as previous episodes with the girl had included her teeming with emotions over the slightest contact with Snape. She had no idea how to deal with that last time. She wasn’t sure she would be able to deal with it now. She wasn’t even sure how to deal with her own emotional outburst.  
  
Lily sighed. She crawled over to where Aaliyah sat and pulled the younger girl into herself, rubbing her back and holding her head against her shoulder. Ali wasn’t usually one to enjoy so much unsolicited contact. She was withdrawn and she wasn’t used to attention. But for that moment, while she was feeling vulnerable and highly ridiculous, she silently thanked Lily. For the kind girl had seen a cry for help when Ali had not even realised she’d made it.


	19. The pranks committee

‘Order! Order!’ Remus bellowed from his bed. ‘There will be order in the room for the Pranks Committee meeting is about to start.’ He seemed to find himself quite funny. He was in a very bright mood indeed this morning. But James and Sirius were still wrestling on James’s bed to his far left. He sighed picking up the closest thing he could, which happened to be a shoe and tossed it at them.  
  
‘Hey!’ They both called out when the shoe jolted them out of their play fighting.   
  
‘The Minister of the Pranks Committee requests  _order_!’ Remus announced once again flicking his arms out before him like a conductor and with that both James and Sirius scrambled into a sitting position and touched two fingers to their chests, just over their hearts. On the other side of the room in the cleanest part, Peter did the same and once Remus had joined them they all sounded off together.  
  
‘ _I solemnly swear I am up to no good._ ’ They chanted and stared up at Remus.  
  
‘Right. Now that we’re gathered, it is time for revenge on Snivellus, for his questionable actions towards the Senior Undersecretary.’ Remus nodded.  
  
‘Haven’t I already said I would take care of that myself?’ Sirius spoke but his attention was being caught by an owl pecking at the window. They hadn’t been down to breakfast yet, being a Saturday Peter and James had allowed the two sleepier boys to waste their morning. He got up and made a move towards it, dodging a few of the things hanging from the ceiling that he and James had put up as a joke two weeks ago to scare Remus and Peter. They were all too lazy to rid the room of the suspended shrunken heads and stray clawed fingers.  
  
‘As Advisor to the Minister of the Pranks Committee I have to say I agree.’ James had a very haughty look on his face as he puffed his chest out and peered over his glasses around the room like he was addressing a large group of people, and not just his three best friends. One of which was paying no attention at all.  
  
‘As Junior Assistant I third the notion!’ Peter announced as Sirius clicked the window open and the barn own hopped inside, a newspaper with it. Sirius gathered up the five bronze knuts to pay it and it took off once they were secured in the little pouch on its leg.  
  
‘Sod off, the lot of you. I’ve got it.’ Sirius spoke barely paying them any attention as he examined the front page of the paper. ‘No way!’ He shouted after ducking a stay finger and reading the headline.  
  
‘What?’ All three boys questioned jumping up from their respective beds to join him as he sat down absentmindedly on his own.  
  
‘Giants. He’s got giants on his side!’ Sirius cursed throwing the paper down. ‘Every  _day_  more murders. People going missing. Whole families being wiped out. And what are we doing? Learning our charms work like good little students. I’m sick of this. I want a word with Dumbledore. I want to know what we can  _do_. I feel useless!’ Sirius was standing again, pacing back and forth beside his bed. Remus, James and Peter watched him helplessly. As much as they would have liked to tell him to calm down, he was right.  
  
‘We’ll speak to him about it mate. But he’s not here at the moment is he?’ James looked to Remus. Remus just shrugged and shook his head stating he was unsure.   
  
‘I don’t really know how much we could do even  _if_ we were to graduate at the end of this term.’ Remus looked slightly queasy as he stared down at the title of the daily prophet that clearly stated the invasion of giants in Great Britain. Muggle deaths and wizarding deaths alike scattered around the page. As much as they wanted to fight they had only just come of age. No one was really going to take them seriously.  
  
‘If we get the right amount of NEWTs we can become Aurors.’ Peter supplied with a timid smile. He never liked it when Sirius’s temper flared up.   
  
‘You’re not even doing Potions Wormtail, you can’t become an Auror.’ Sirius rolled his eyes falling face first into the bed with a deep sigh into his mattress. ‘Even so, three years training! We don’t have time for that!’   
  
‘There, there honey.’ James rubbed his back tenderly and Sirius flopped over and clapped his hands to his face rubbing his eyes with the back of his palms. From there he combed his fingers up through his hair and it splayed out around his head.  
  
‘Honestly Sirius. Cut your hair.’ Remus made a face.  
  
‘No.’ Sirius pouted. ‘I look good.’  
  
‘You look like a tosser.’ Peter shook his head.  
  
‘Say’s  _you_.’ Sirius snorted and Peter’s face turned into a horrible scowl. ‘What do you reckon Dumble’s is up to? We need to do some serious research into this.’ He sat up abruptly and James jumped back skittishly. ‘Does anyone have the password to his office?’  
  
‘No. Even I have to draw the line there Padfoot.’ Remus shook his head disapprovingly. Sirius groaned.  
  
‘Listen. It’s Saturday. We should be doing something fun.’ Peter got up off the bed and made his way back to his own. ‘Stop making out like it’s the most important thing in the world to throw yourself right in front of death. What good is that going to do anyone?’   
  
‘Yes, we should all take a leaf out of Petey’s book and keep our hair trimmed and our mummy’s happy.’ James announced jumping up and making a trampoline out of Sirius’s bed.  
  
‘Don’t call me Petey.’ Peter snapped back as he pulled a jumper over his head.  
  
‘ _Petey_!’ All three boys called in unison, James racing towards him and tackling him into his freshly made bed. Peter screamed so loudly that even those in the common room would have heard it, followed by boisterous laughter. After that Sirius seemed to forget the Daily Prophet induced bad mood, which came about at least once a week these days, and they made plans for their day off.   
  
When they were headed down to the great hall for some lunch James elbowed Sirius beside him and motioned ahead of them down the corridor just outside the common room. The prefect Adams was couched a little lower to a first year that seemed to be crying.  
  
‘What’s wrong? Did someone hurt you?’ She asked. She looked a little out of her element. She was a fantastic prefect when it came down to dishing out punishment to rule breakers, honestly, the school had never seen one better. But she was quite stupid when it came to comforting people or heightened emotions. She resembled a cat with wailing baby trying desperately to just pat its head and hope that would be enough.  
  
The little first year boy was wiping his face but his cries seemed overly loud and rather forced. Sirius’s brow rose as all four of the boys stopped short to see the scene unfold.   
  
‘S-s-slytherin!’ The boy shouted and Adams reacted to this immediately. She whipped up trying to stand tall and looked about trying to find the supposed culprit. Sirius knew better. It was when she turned back to the boy to ask him where the Slytherin was when he let out a strangled cry and threw his arms around her. She was frozen to the spot clearly very confused.  
  
James laughed loudly beside Sirius as he figured out what was going on also. Remus sighed. Peter drew up next to James and seemed to imitate him, and Sirius flicked some of the hair out of his eyes with a smirk at a first year with this much cunning.   
  
‘Oy!’ He shouted walking over to the clearly uncomfortable prefect, just as she jumped out of the boys grasp when his hand slipped a little lower towards her bottom half. The Gryffindor first year whirled around to Sirius and flashed a grin. ‘Get those mandrake tears out of here you little imp!’ Sirius pointed a finger at him and the boy made a run for it. Adams confusion was replaced with anger.  
  
‘Black! What was that for? He needed help you brute!’ She yelled at him and he was truly fascinated by how slow she could be. The first year was clearly just trying to cop a feel. Adams was certainly one of the prettier girls of the school. She was vastly annoying with her prefect badge and her saint-like nature towards all the school rules, and not to mention her complete disregard for any kind of social contact. Her pretty features were almost  _always_  turned up in a scowl. But she was pretty none-the-less. And her strange habits made for a running joke around the school with the male cohort. Whoever could crack Adams and snag her first was sure to be revered as a hero of sorts. But mostly she was so phlegmatic and aloof that one could hardly get a word in with her.   
  
‘Are you really that stupid Adams?’ Sirius shook his head staring down at her like she was something to be pitied.   
  
‘Say that again.’ Her voice was low and although her wand wasn’t drawn, there was definitely something about her change of voice that made Sirius stop any kind of reply.  
  
‘Hey, Ali.’ This seemed to defuse the tension. In fact, it did something they all hadn’t expected. Adams jerked around to look at Remus and came to a loss for words. Her green eyes wide, staring at him with her jaw hanging a little open. No reply at all was uttered. Remus frowned a little at this but Sirius noticed James straighten himself up and knew what that meant immediately.  
  
‘Oh my!’ They heard Lily Evans shout as she ran over to them. That had to be the strangest thing of all. ‘Adams I need you desperately! I honestly cannot wrap my head around this- thing- could you give me a hand?’ The boys all watched in wonder as Evans scooped Adams up and led her off towards the common room with Macdonald close behind.  
  
‘What the hell was that about?’ Sirius and James turned to McKinnon who hadn’t followed her friends and opted to stand with them instead. They saw Remus start scratching the back of his neck and his cheeks flushing a little brighter than usual at this. Sirius felt a wicked smile coming to his lips.  
  
‘Hey. How did she do that?’ James asked, watching as the three girls climbed into the round portrait hole. ‘How did she get Evans to  _run_  to her? I need pointers!’ James announced pointing after them. Peter smacked his hand down.  
  
‘Can we  _eat_ first?’ Peter grumbled and started walking off in the direction of the stairs. Sirius decided to join him and wrapped an arm around James to drag him away but then remembered Remus and Marlene. He turned back from where they had been walking and watched as Marlene stood beside Remus talking. Remus was trying to look anywhere but directly at her. He was clearly rubbish at the subtle art that was flirting.  
  
James wolf-whistled to his right when Marlene grabbed Remus’s hand and Remus shot them a glare.  
  
‘Oy McKinnon's!’ Sirius yelled out taking delight in embarrassing his favourite werewolf. ‘Scratch him behind the ear, it’ll get his leg going!’ Sirius and James cracked into a fit of laughter at the hand gesture Remus gave them and decided he was taking too long and turned around to go after Peter.   
  
As the three boys got their usual spot at the Gryffindor table and started digging into the food for lunch James spoke up.  
  
‘Do you reckon Moony is going to date McKinnon’s?’ He pushed his glasses up his nose with the back of his hand reactively as they slipped down.  
  
‘I don’t reckon he has the guts.’ Sirius replied sizing up a piece of sandwich. ‘Reckon I can fit this whole this in my mouth at once?’ He grinned over at James. James nodded furiously making his glasses return to a further place down his nose. As Sirius attempted to shove the whole sandwich into his mouth Peter and James snorted with laughter at all the bread and lettuce trying to escape his lips.  
  
‘The feeding rituals of animals are truly fascinating.’ They heard Snape before they saw him. He slinked by with Rosier and Wilkes to his left and the boys sniggered. James was standing faster than any of them but Snape and the others were out of sight before they could retaliate.  
  
‘Creepy death eater wanna-be’s.’ James spat and turned around to face Sirius. ‘They get away with  _everything_. How is it they cursed Mary Macdonald that one time and didn’t get expelled?’   
  
‘That was Mulciber.’ Peter corrected him with a little shudder.  
  
‘I don’t care who it was. They make me  _sick_  with the boners they get for the dark arts.’ James always got riled up over Snape and the gang of Slytherin’s. His hatred for all things relating to the dark arts extended to those that willingly practised them. Sirius just watched out of the corner of his eye as they sat down. He then spat his masticated food onto his plate and Peter made a disapproving groan.  
  
‘Watch this.’ Sirius grinned. ‘ _Oppugno_.’ He pointed his wand tip, hidden in the sleeve on his shirt, at the gross remains of the sandwich and all the saliva covered scraps leapt to life and soared over to the Slytherin table. Screams could be heard all throughout the hall and the boys quickly jumped out of their seats and ran from the hall, laughing.   
  
‘Enjoy my spit Snivelly.’ Sirius called out and he barely had time to register the thumb and forefinger that clasped around his ear before it stopped him in his tracks.  
  
‘Mister Black!’ McGonagall’s stern voice made all three of the boy's hearts sink. ‘Why in heavens name is it always you three? I’ve even got Miss Adams on your case and you’re still getting into as much trouble as before. Do you  _know_  what school rules are?’   
  
‘Minnie. I’m sorry.’ Sirius tried to break free but her grip tightened on his ear. He decided the mention of their elected nickname for her at present was one of his worst ideas to date.  
  
‘Two points and detention Mister Black.’ She released him and shook her head before striding into the hall for the lunch she had been planning to have in  _peace_.   
  
‘Rotten luck mate.’ Peter gave him an apologetic look.  
  
‘It was worth it.’ Sirius just shrugged. ‘And this makes me want to get Snivelly back even more.’ Sirius confirmed slapping his fist into his hand. James cheered.   
  
It wasn’t until it was dark out and James, Sirius and Peter were gathered in their dorm shouting happily about Quidditch teams that they saw the return of Remus. James was getting particularly heated about his Tutshill Tornadoes team, who Sirius was trying to argue didn’t hold a candle to the Chudley Canons in an effort to piss him off. It was working a treat as James was furious trying to explain how terrible the Canons were, it was something Sirius and Peter both knew very well. Peter was laughing at James while Sirius just shook his head as if disagreeing. Then the door creaked open and Remus wondered in.  
  
‘Why, hullo there Remus.’ Sirius abandon James and followed Remus with his eyes as he jumped over a pile of clothes and made his way to his bed. He grunted a reply as if he wasn’t paying them much attention. James, Sirius and Peter all watched him as he shed his jumper and saw as he glimpsed over at James and Sirius on Sirius’s bed.  
  
‘How was your afternoon?’ James asked with a smile, forgetting all about the Canons and the Tornadoes for the moment.  
  
‘Did you get lost?’ Peter asked from his other side and Remus’s eyes darted over to him with his head only slightly moving. His face was impassive and he sat on his bed with a shrug.  
  
‘Was alright. And no.’ He picked up a copy of his Ancient Runes text to act busy.  
  
‘Yes. I see.’ Sirius nodded knowingly. ‘Moony has had performance issues. Everyone leave him alone. He must meditate on this. He needs to be fighting fit for the next time McKinnon rounds on him. Or he’ll be a virgin ‘til he’s fifty.’ Sirius announced this so clearly and confidently that Remus hurled his text over at him at the mention of the word  _virgin_. Luckily it missed. Sirius had turned around to James as the two laughed but when Sirius reopened his eyes James was frozen.  
  
‘Uh, M-Moony-‘ James started, raising his hand out beyond Sirius but within seconds they heard a loud snipping sound and Sirius saw midnight black glossy locks fall down his shoulder. His face went blank and James took in a deep breath, holding his lips together with such force they went white. He was trying the hardest he had ever tried not to laugh. Sirius’s face became as pale as his eyes. They followed to the side the hair was produced from and he saw the glistening sight of hard silver scissors. Sirius screamed whirling around and falling into James lap.  
  
‘WHAT HAVE YOU DONE YOU HORRIBLE WEREWOLF?!’ He cried grabbing at the part of his hair that now only fell barely to his collar. ‘You fiend!’  
  
‘Serves you right.’ Remus countered.   
  
‘I’m getting out of here!’ Peter announced running from the room as Sirius bounced up from James and made a run for Remus. Remus threw the scissors aside and bolted for it. He was prepared for this.  
  
‘Get back here! I’ll kill you!’ Sirius screamed chasing him out of the dorm and down the spiral staircase into the common room.  
  
‘What is going on!?’ Lily Evans cried out as Remus ran by her and Sirius was not far behind. Peter had gotten to her not much before.  
  
‘Quick! Defuse it Evans!’ Peter pointed at them wildly. ‘Hex them! Remus chopped Padfoot’s hair!’ James had joined them within seconds and was smiling, mouth wide at what was going on around the common room. Sirius had just pushed a third year over trying to get to Remus and that’s where Evans drew the line.  
  
‘ _Petrificus Totalus!_ ’ Lily screamed but it missed Sirius and hit another student instead. ‘Oh my god Sirius your hair is  _fine_!’ She shouted when all the Gryffindor’s came rushing down the stairs to see what was going on. Adams pulling up beside Lily and James.  
  
‘ _Obscuro_!’ Ali flicked her wand beside Lily and it just managed to connect with Sirius as he leapt over an armchair and launched himself at Remus. He pulled up short when the blindfold wrapped around his eyes and Remus started laughing like a madman.  
  
‘Perfect aim Ali!’ He yelled over at her and Ali’s expression died a little.   
  
‘Go upstairs!’ Evans barked at Remus beside her, pointing to the boys’ staircase and Remus complied willingly, Peter scurrying along after him. James had taken off to when Sirius was trying to rip the blindfold off and Lily and Ali followed close behind.  
  
‘Get this off me! I need to exact my vengeance on that mangy mongrel!’ Sirius demanded and as she advanced, Ali shoved Sirius hard in the chest and he flung back into an armchair.   
  
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ She announced unveiling the blindfold. ‘He’s your friend.’ When Sirius’s vision came swimming back Adams was standing directly in front of him with her hands on her hips. His temper dimmed a little and Lily seemed to be watching her, assessing something.  
  
‘But my  _hair_!’ Sirius pointed to the uneven side. There were still a large number of students around, watching them.  
  
‘Honestly Black you needed a haircut anyway.’ Lily shook her head at his defeated frown. ‘I’ll even it up if you like?’ She offered and James turned to her, mortified.  
  
‘You just like touching his hair!’ James pointed an accusatory finger and Lily grinned.  
  
‘Well, maybe I do Potter. Maybe I do.’ She motioned for Sirius to come closer so she could inspect the damage.  
  
‘How bad is it? Is it salvageable?’ Sirius was wincing waiting for the reply and Adams had rolled her eyes at the boys’ vanity and made her way over to the still ridged student Lily seemed to have forgotten. James was muttering with his arms folded.  
  
‘Yes. I think it is.’ Lily nodded and it wasn’t long before she was playing hairdresser in the common room while a few people looked on. Most of the onlookers being girls. Macdonald and McKinnon seemed to be absent and Adams sat as far away from Sirius as she could, staring at the boys’ staircase as if she was making sure the fight wouldn’t start back up again. James, who was still muttering as Lily worked her magic, took this chance to pounce on the fifth year.  
  
‘Adams.’ He struck up sitting on the arm of her chair. She jolted, looking away from the staircase. ‘Could you possibly explain something to me?’ James didn’t find himself to be any kind of expert on the prefect, but she did seem a little less peppy than usual. Peppy being her forceful yelling at Sirius and himself. Mostly Sirius.  
  
‘Sure.’ She breathed. She had been much more approachable since the night she had sat talking to Peter about healing spells with he and Remus as company. James didn’t have too much of an opinion on her, besides being grateful for her convenient appearance the night Snape had cursed Sirius.  
  
‘Evans  _ran_  to you before? Why?’ He had to ask. It had been plaguing him all day. She seemed to register his presence a little more at this question. She actually turned to him. Her face was quizzical.   
  
‘Uh.’ She was thinking. She tapped her finger to her lips. ‘I think she’s just trying to look out for me because she feels responsible for- well- nothing of importance.’ She shrugged it off and looked over to the redhead. ‘She’s a very kind girl.’  
  
‘She is, isn’t she?’ James added following her lead and looking over at Lily and Sirius. She had just finished and looked quite pleased with herself. Sirius’s hair was back to a normal length for him. As she located a mirror and showed him the results he seemed to rejoice.  
  
‘Evans, you’re the best.’ He stood up and swooped Lily into a hug lifting her off her feet. She was shocked at first but laughed a little as Sirius spun her around. Over where James and Ali were sitting quietly both had frozen a little. James’s anger was palpable. He was going to flick Sirius right between the eyes tomorrow morning at seven am for that.


	20. The marauders specialty

Ali’s mind had been a little off track over the days since she had unknowingly walked in on Remus Lupin quite literally mauling Marlene McKinnon. It was an image seared into her brain that she wished she could rid herself of completely. She imagined she would have gone on a tirade after that, giving students detentions for stupid things with a temper that wouldn’t quit. But instead she seemed to be taking solace in her bed with Snowball for forced company. True she went to classes and did her daily routine as normal. But instead of spending her free time in the library, she decided her bed was much less likely to produce sixth years sucking each other’s faces.   
  
Although, sharing a dorm with Anna Cox and her gang, sometimes you couldn’t be sure. She thanked the founders of Hogwarts on almost a weekly basis for their idea to ensure boys could not make it up to their dorms. At present she lay on her bed, curtains drawn, listening to her dorm mates as they got ready.   
  
‘All she does is lay in there.’ Maria whispered not nearly quietly enough.   
  
‘It’s been like, over a week.’  
  
‘Maybe someone in her family died?’   
  
‘That’s a bit morbid Emily.’ You could almost feel the eye roll in Bianca’s tone. Aaliyah yawned lifting her copy of  _Home Life and Social Habits of British Muggles_  from her stomach where it had been resting. She began to read the chapter pertaining to muggle automobiles and how they didn’t run on magic but rather gears and oil and other such strangely named things.  
  
‘Who cares?’ Anna’s voice joined them. ‘Hopefully she stays in there for the rest of the term so we don’t have to see her ugly face.’ She spat and Aaliyah’s face remained unchanged as she read.  
  
‘Did you guys hear McKinnon and Lupin are a thing now?’ Maria changed the subject. Ali’s face still remained unchanged. She was dealing with the whole thing a lot better than Lily had thought she would. Her only real change being the fact that she had decided to avoid Remus for the time being.  
  
‘I heard differently.’ Bianca stated. ‘Lupin’s apparently not into her.’  
  
‘I think they’re cute.’ Emily put in her two knuts.  
  
‘No one really cares what you think Emily.’ Anna was always quite rude to her friends, most of all ditsy Emily. Sometimes Ali pinned it down to the fact that Emily got more attention from boys than she did. And boys were the only thing that mattered to dear old Cocky.  
  
‘Why does that stupid skunk-face McKinnon have a boyfriend and  _I_  don’t?’ Anna continued getting to the core of her anger.  
  
 _Maybe because you’re a horrible little wench_? Ali thought to herself with a smile. She tried to tune out of the conversation tiring quickly of their one track minds. However, it was actually a lot harder to tune them out than Aaliyah would have liked. She kept quiet until the conversation took a turn she refused to ignore.  
  
‘What about that stupid cow Evans? I honestly cannot stand her. She treats James like a leaper. Why does he  _bother_?’ Anna’s voice was cool and short. She and Lily got along about as much as she did with Ali.  
  
‘Just because he’s not bounding after you doesn’t give you the right to talk that nastily about a nice girl.’ Ali whipped her drapes back and stared at Anna. Over the past three days Lily had been taking it upon herself to check in on Ali. She had felt horribly for apparently urging Marlene to confront Remus about his chaste looks in class. She had come up to Ali’s dorm twice to find her since then and had read a few books with her and provided her with company. She was such a nice girl, Ali didn’t know how she did it.  
  
‘What do you know you banshee? Like anything other than school rules is logged away in your fat head.’ Anna, who was almost done primping herself for dinner, shot back.  
  
‘You should really stop entertaining the idea of making yourself look any better, it’s honestly not doing you any good. Putting make-up on a bicorn is only going to make it an ugly beast with colourful eye-shadow after all.’ The comment was followed by a sly smile from Ali and Anna flared up at once.  
  
‘You’re a stupid little bitch and no one  _likes_  you!’ Anna was standing now. ‘All you’re good for is reading books you nerd, you’re going to die old and alone!’  
  
‘Oh yes! Cause all I’m amounted to is my worth of landing a husband. Whatever shall I do? With my career and intellect? What bloody good will that stuff do me?’   
  
‘Exactly!’ Anna smirked as if she had proven her point. She had clearly missed the blatant sarcasm. Ali rolled her eyes.  
  
‘Just leave Lily alone.’ She added a finality to her tone and grabbed her wand getting off her bed. She couldn’t sit in the dorm and listen to them any longer. She’d had enough.  
  
‘What? Do you have some kind of girl crush on Evan’s now? I mean, that would make sense. You’re so  _weird_.’ Anna followed Ali as she strode out of the dorm much to her dismay.  
  
‘Really Cox? Honestly? That’s the best you can come up with? Is that supposed to be an insult? Because I find it sexist. To your own gender at that. Not to mention the radically ridiculous relation between someone’s sexuality and being ‘weird’.’ By the time they’d gotten to the bottom of the staircase and Ali had finished her sentence Anna drew up short. She had literally no idea what Ali was on about.  
  
‘Just because you have a crush on Evans doesn’t mean you can go calling me names when I figure it out. Why don’t you go back to the library? You’re honestly the strangest person. Have you ever even  _kissed_  someone?’  
  
Ali felt her eye twitch. She couldn’t even sum up how many things were wrong with such a short amount of words. This was why she hated her dorm mates. Anna was petty and brought up to believe that she was only worth what a man would rate her. Mostly she tried to ignore it as she had seen Anna’s parents and didn’t think the girl really stood a chance with a mother and father like hers. All they ever found interesting were boys. They had a world of magic at their fingertips and the best conversation topic they could mull on was whether or not Remus Lupin and Marlene McKinnon were snogging. She was just about to blow up when she felt a hand rest on her shoulder.  
  
‘Ladies, ladies. I could cut the tension with a knife here.’ Sirius's body was close behind hers and she could feel how much taller he was as he lingered close to her back. She felt her whole body tense and the hairs of her skin stand up as his chest pressed slightly against her.  
  
‘She started it!’ Anna defended glaring daggers at Ali at the appearance of her preferred object of affection coming to Ali’s side and not her own.  
  
‘If anyone has a crush on Evans, it’s me.’ James pulled up beside them stating gracefully.  
  
‘And I don’t bloody know  _why_?’ Anna’s fury clearly swept her up and her usual filter of words around cute boys was lost. ‘She’s a cranky bitch, just like this one.’ Anna pointed directly at Ali and before Ali had a chance to tell her just where she could shove her assumptions Anna’s mouth filled with soap suds and James was stashing away his wand.  
  
‘Watch your language in front of a  _prefect_  Cox.’ James shook his head as if he was disciplining a child. Suddenly Ali was reminded of the night when the same two boys had come to Lily’s rescue outside the Christmas party. She was being led away from the scene almost immediately by Sirius with James not far behind. Ali just managed to see Bianca and Maria rushing to Anna before they disappeared through the portrait hole.  
  
‘Boys…’ Ali could feel herself literally twitching. She should have been telling them off for that. She was a prefect. She had a duty. Dumbledore had  _trusted her_.   
  
‘It’s okay Adams.  _Breathe_.’ Sirius’ voice brought her out of her internal battle and she realised he was standing in front of her now with his hands positioned on her shoulders. For a moment their close proximity made her cheeks burn, but then his words hit her and the short phrase he’d used reminded her of the way she usually calmed herself down  _over him_.   
  
‘I’m aware of the basic composition and the human body’s needs Black, thank you.’ She looked away from him and examined a part of the floor with a pout.  
  
‘Well good, because you were going red, I was starting to worry.’ He was definitely smirking. She could  _hear_  it. She smacked one of his hands away from her and muttered something so low that both James and Sirius had to ask her to repeat it.  
  
‘ _Thank you_.’ She spat. It went against everything she stood for! But they were helping her. Holy dooly she had never been so confused.  
  
‘Aw, she likes us.’ James cooed and pulled her into one of his side hugs and Ali tensed up again. She couldn’t handle these boys, they were the strangest people she’d come across. And they seemed to be making it their personal goal to annoy her as much as possible since she had helped Sirius the night Snape cursed him.  
  
‘Don’t be stupid. I don’t like either of you.’ The look on her face was one of such forced anger Sirius started laughing at her.  
  
‘Wow, you’re adorable when you’re angry Adams, truly.’ Again she was feeling her cheeks burn. She didn’t like this attention at all. She could barely deal with Lily and her kindness, let alone these two knuckleheads.   
  
‘Stop it.’ She whined covering her face with her hands.  
  
‘Oh!’ James shouted. ‘My heart! That was too cute Adams. I’m a taken man, stop this this instant!’ When she uncovered her warm face James was clutching his chest and faking a faint against Sirius who was standing with his arms crossed, a small smile on that reached up to his eyes. Ali couldn’t help the laugh that came out. She absolutely could not stand these boys. No. Not at all. But… they were quite funny. James recovered and threw an arm around her.   
  
‘Have you been okay Adams? We noticed we weren’t getting nearly as many reprimands this week as we usually did. Where  _have_  you been?’ James asked and started leading them down the corridor and in the direction of the grand staircase.  
  
‘Uh, yeah.’ She still didn’t know quite how to handle his contact and her eyes kept darting to Sirius who was walking along side James. ‘Just, haven’t been out of the dorm much. Hey, maybe we might win the house cup if I lock myself in there?’ It sounded like a joke, but the words were quite true. Nonetheless the boys laughed at this.  
  
‘Ah, Adams. There’s more to you than meets the eye isn’t there?’ Sirius asked as he stared straight ahead. Ali looked over at him with a stern look thinking his mind had wondered to its usual place.  
  
‘Yes. And you’ll never see it. Get your mind out of the gutter Black.’ She huffed and turned her attention back to where they were walking. James actually spat when he laughed beside her.   
  
‘Oh! Bested by a fifth year Padfoot! How will you come back from this?’ He was pointing at Sirius and hugging her tighter now. She started to relax into James a little more as they traipsed along coming to terms with the fact that the unmerited contact couldn’t be avoided with him.   
  
‘Nah. I’ll allow it. Adams is rather worthy if you ask me.’ When she looked over at him he had a very small smile on his face as he watched her out of the corner of his eyes. Once again she was blushing and she was about ready to cauterize the capillaries in her face at this point. Here she was, walking alongside James Potter and Sirius Black. Two of the boys that caused her the most trouble at this school. One of which she had literally despised since she started. And she kept bloody  _blushing_. What was going on? She didn’t like it at  _all_.   
  
Before she had a chance to ask where the bloody hell they were going they were in front of the great hall and Peter was waving over to them.  
  
‘Took you guys long enough!’ He said as they reached him. ‘Hey Adams.’ He smiled at her timidly as they led her into the hall. She just nodded to him.  
  
‘You know, you didn’t even ask if I was hungry.’ Aaliyah furrowed her brow as James pulled her down into the corner of the table everyone knew was their territory. ‘Or if I wanted to eat with you. Which I don’t.’  
  
‘You were coming down the stairs. It was dinner time. And who  _wouldn’t_  want to eat with us?’ James supplied looking around at the food. ‘Plus like we were going to leave you with Cox. Everyone knows she hates you.’ He seemed to decide on roast beef first.  
  
‘Don’t sugarcoat it or anything.’ Peter rolled his eyes. ‘What happened anyway?’ As James explained the situation to Peter, Ali looked across the table at Sirius and realised something very important.   
  
‘Wait. Where’s Lupin?’ She directed her question at him while he was midway through a bite of a lamb chop.  
  
‘Lost? Gone? Becoming a  _man_?’ He shrugged. Peter laughed beside him now listening to their conversation once the facts had been relayed. She was somewhat confused by that. She guessed it related to something crude, being Sirius. By the time she realised how incredibly odd this scene was she was too far in to back out. As the boys ate she looked down the Gryffindor table and a few people were watching them between bites of their meals. Dirk Cresswell waved at her seeming confused and she raised a hand in return.  
  
She looked at Peter and Sirius as they challenged each other to an eating contest of roast potatoes. James offered to referee. She found herself lost for words just staring at them until James slapped her on the back.  
  
‘Aren’t you hungry Adams? Take a bit of roast, it’s delicious.’ He gestured towards it from beside her and her stomach grumbled. She tried to laugh it away and started to grab some bits and pieces. She was still a little ridged, not knowing how you were supposed to eat in front of others that weren’t your family members. As she watched Peter and Sirius stuff their faces with potato she realised, it didn’t matter. By the time she had quietly gotten through half of her food they were all onto seconds and Peter was telling Sirius about something he had seen while they were upstairs.  
  
‘Yeah. They walked right in front of me. Moony didn’t even  _notice_. But they just seem to be snogging a lot really.’   
  
‘Baby’s all grown  _up_.’ Sirius choked out wiping away a fake tear. But that wasn’t what had caught Ali’s attention. She had come to know that Moony was their nickname for Remus, for reasons unknown. But clearly he had been spying on Remus and Marlene… in plain sight? Was Remus really that taken with Marlene that he couldn’t see Peter? Peter was short, surely, even Ali herself was taller than him now. But how do you walk right by your best friend and not notice? Love was very odd.   
  
That’s when Ali spooned some potato in her mouth and thought on the idea of love. She knew the feelings she’d had for Remus were nothing close to love. She wasn’t even entirely sure she liked him. But it only served to further prove the theory that if someone in love could literally be blind to the things around them, she more than likely had confused her emotions for Remus. Certainly. Thinking about it from a logical perspective anyway. Remus had been so kind to her by keeping her company and listening to her rant and rave she did develop some feelings for him.  
  
But as she sat beside James and watched as Peter and Sirius laughed together she realised what she’d been feeling for Remus wasn’t a crush. She had actually felt the same kind of feelings for Lily a couple of nights prior when the girl had pulled her into the hug she hadn’t realised she’d needed. She felt the same way when Sirius and James had just defended her against Anna. She even felt the same way when Peter had offered her a smile and a greeting when she approached instead of being whispered at like students usually did.  
  
Ali knew she wasn’t the smartest person when it came to social interaction, but she did think she had hit it on the nose when she realised that this is what people felt towards their  _friends_.   
  
‘You right there Adams?’ James asked as the dinner dishes disappeared and were replaced by desserts.  
  
She turned to James and gave him a small smile. ‘I am, actually.’  
  
As queer as the situation at hand was she stopped herself from telling Peter off at the mention of an old prank they pulled. As the boys laughed she thought about something Remus had said to her towards the start of the year. He was curious about how she enjoyed the quiet of the library to the common room. He told her he liked the noise. That it helped him think. Back then she thought he was a magical item short of a wand. But when James catapulted a bit of pudding at Sirius and Peter and James burst into laughter as Sirius shouted at him she couldn’t help but smile again. Her cheeks were getting sore.  
  
She found it very peculiar that a group as popular as these boys would welcome her to sit with them for dinner just because she’d had a fight with her dorm mate. But she was just unaware of how the boys worked. Outcasts were the Marauders speciality. 


	21. Stupid Black

Ali blew a few strands of hair out of her face as she walked the corridors of the third floor. It was well past curfew and she was getting tired. She loved that she had been chosen for the responsibility of prefect, but sometimes it could be tedious. But the moment her mind turned down that path she smacked herself. It was a great honour to be chosen a prefect and she shouldn’t have been complaining. Try as she might to be grateful, she then sighed loudly staring down the dimly lit and very deserted halls. They were six weeks away from the end of the school year and Ali had felt like she’d made more progress in her fifth year at Hogwarts than all her other years combined.   
  
‘Adams!’ She jumped a little whirling around to see Dirk Cresswell waving to her.  
  
‘Dammit Cresswell! Don’t sneak up on me.’ She made her way over to her counterpart prefect and he smiled sweetly at her.  
  
‘Sorry. I’ve just seen McGonagall though. She’s told us to get to bed. Reckons we need as much sleep as possible for study and prep.’ Since the Christmas party she had noticed that Dirk had been a lot friendlier with her. He didn’t really go out of his way to seek her out, but he waved from time to time and sometimes took a seat by her in classes.  
  
‘It’s like she thinks we’re stupid enough to have not been preparing for our OWLs. Does she know me at all?’ Ali shook her head, quite insulted. She was feeling confident about their upcoming tests. Not obnoxiously so, but confident enough to not be sweating like some of their peers at present.  
  
‘Hey, can I ask you a question?’ Dirk was doing the thing again. The thing Ali really didn’t like. When boys spoke to her and stared at the floor playing with their hands rather than looking her in the eye.  
  
‘Yes.’ She watched him fidget as they walked back to the Gryffindor tower together.   
  
‘You were sitting with the Golden Gang last night at dinner. What was that? I thought you hated them?’ He looked up to gauge Ali’s reaction. At first she contemplated her reply to that, a little jolted. Then she frowned.  
  
‘I don’t hate  _them_.’ Her thoughts turned over to Sirius Black and his haughty manner. She was about to counter the statement with  _just him._ But realised she was being a little cruel. Sirius had come to her rescue last night and they even promised to stay out of trouble while in her company, if they could, as they walked back up to the common room together. She sighed.  
  
‘Just Sirius Black?’ Dirk asked still watching her, seeing what his words would cause her to do.  
  
‘Ugh!’ She blew out a large breath to try and get the hair out of her face again, trying to figure out what her reply to that was.  _Yes_. She thought. She did hate Sirius. He was a rude little prat and he always had been!  
  
 _Then again, no_. She thought thinking of the few times he had caught her off guard. The night he had lifted her out of the vanishing step and wiped a tear from her face. The kind smile he wore, thanking her for letting him off his detention early so to help Remus out. The face he made when he’d found her, assaulting his person while asleep in the hospital wing. Him coming to her rescue twice now with her foul natured dorm mate.  She pushed her bottom lip into a very forced frown.  
  
‘He’s an arse, that’s quite certain. But I suppose he isn’t  _all_  bad.’ She decided on her answer as they got to the portrait and Dirk stopped and sized her up with an accusatory look. She liked this even less than she liked his fidgeting.   
  
‘You  _like_  him!’ He pointed at her and Ali turned her nose up instantly.  
  
‘Don’t be stupid _,_  Cresswell. Just because I don’t hate someone doesn’t mean I’m hot for them.’ Why did people continuously make this assumption? She was getting tired of it.  
  
‘But you hated him at the start of the year! You haven’t given him a detention in over a week!’ She was very confused by his attitude at current. What did any of it even matter? She did not like Sirius Stupid Black.  
  
‘That’s because I haven’t found him doing anything  _wrong_  this week. If you haven’t noticed I haven’t been out of the dorms much. This is ridiculous! Why am I explaining myself to you?’ She all but shouted the password at the fat lady not liking this social interaction at  _all._  The fat lady swung open with a glare at being woken up and Ali climbed in first.  
  
‘Hey, no!’ Dirk followed quickly behind realising his rudeness. With a friend it could probably have been joked off but he and Ali weren’t that close. ‘I’m sorry. I just, everyone reckons you’re keen on him. I was actually sticking up for you in class today.’ He sighed as they stood together in the common room.  
  
‘Not everyone thinks the sun shines out of his arse.’ Ali snapped. ‘But right now I would consider him more of a gentleman than you, and that’s saying something.’ She adopted her usual scowl and Dirk visibly shrunk.  
  
‘Sorry.’ He offered again and when Ali finally accepted it she bid him a short good night and climbed her respective dorm stairs to her room. Once inside Anna and the others were still awake. They all gave her similar looks that said she was far from welcome. Sighing, she got into her bed and closed the curtains. Teenagers were all so  _moody_. You’d think she set fire to their cat or something.   
  
Most of the student body paid her little thought with the exception of her dorm mates outwardly being cruel to her at certain points. But lately she seemed to be gaining more attention, if only the bad kind. She fell asleep quite quickly thinking of the handful of people that seemed to treat her like less of a dirty stain and more like a human being. She dreamt of Lily laughing at James as he tried and failed to impress her. She dreamed of Remus with an arm around Marlene and Peter and Mary sitting alongside them chatting. She dreamt of Sirius Black with his hands on her shoulders giving her the same knowing smile he once had after they found out Ernie Bulstrode had been transforming into him to get with girls around the school.   
  
She found herself admiring his freshly cut hair. It fell in the most perfect way around his face. He was rudely perfect looking she decided and made to push him but before she could he leant in and kissed her. There was a pause after their lips connected where she blanked, then she sat up out of her sleep so fast she kicked her sheets off and adopted an attack pose. Looking around wildly for Sirius she realised it was a dream. Or a nightmare? Her fast heavy breaths could be heard all through the dorm and she had disrupted her cat’s sleep to which snowball was giving her a very angry look indeed. Once he had curled back up she cracked open the drapes she realised how early it in fact was. The sun looked to only just be reaching through the windows. She tried to lay back down and sleep but her eyes were wider than they had ever been.  
  
‘Stupid Black.’ She cursed lowly as if it was his fault her subconscious had decided to do that. She got up as quietly as she could and gathered up her uniform and wrapped a dressing gown around her pyjamas and decided to have a bath on the fifth floor. Once she had made her way down stairs and out of the common room the sun was very much up and the corridors very much empty. She dawdled down to the stairs and all the way to the prefect’s bathroom. Once she got inside and the pool like bath was filled, she tried to relax taking in all the aromas of the water. It worked well enough and when she decided she’d wasted enough time she dressed and returned to her dorm.   
  
‘Unlucky. She didn’t hurt herself and have to leave the school as a disfigured freak after all.’ Was the sentence that greeted her now that the other girls were awake. She ignored them and stowed away her things and decided the library was definitely missing her.   
  
Her day seemed to continue as normal after that. She sat happily through her double of charms and after break she paid attention through history of magic before joining her cousin in divinations. Misha chatted to her cheerfully about preparation for OWLs. Unfortunately towards the end of class her cousin asked her the same question Dirk Cresswell had asked her the night before.  
  
‘Is there a reason you were sitting with the Gryffindor dorks the other night? The way you talk about Sirius Black I would have thought being within a ten metre radius of him, you might spontaneously combust.’ Misha seemed to find herself funny as she dragged her fingers through her long brown hair as they made their way to the great hall for lunch.  
  
‘Why is everyone so obsessed with them?’ Ali snarled shoving her wand into her bag and crossing her arms over her chest. She gave her cousin no reply. Misha knew Ali well enough not to press the matter and just humoured herself with the reason why her question would have caused such a reaction.   
  
As they made their way down from the north tower they came across a scene that made Ali stop Misha in her tracks and the two watched as Severus Snape and Sirius Black spat retorts at each other. When Misha’s friends pulled up behind them Ali told them to hurry along and that she would try and deal with the boys.  
  
‘Oh is that so Snivellus? Really sure are you? On whose authority?’  
  
‘My own! I’m not a moron like the rest of the idiots that go here. I don’t blunder around just  _accepting_  flimsy alibis. I can read the signs. I  _know_.’  
  
‘Well then. Suppose you should find out? Isn’t there a full moon tonight? Off you trot to the whomping willow.’ Sirius looked particularly irked at this point in time as he stood tall over Snape. They both had their wands out but today it looked to be more of a battle of voices than anything else.  
  
‘I’m not a bleeding mudblood. I know not to go near that thing.’ Snape spat eyeing him particularly harshly, his hook nose crinkling in disdain. Something flashed onto Sirius’s face at that point and he leant in and whispered into Snape’s ear. Snape’s eyes went wide and he drew back from Sirius.  
  
‘I will then. And I’ll get the lot of you kicked out. For  _good_. You can all stay on with that pathetic half-breed and tend to the cabbages. It’s all you’ll be good for.’ Snape spat and Sirius gripped the front of his robes and pulled him up to his face.  
  
‘Hagrid is twice the wizard you’ll ever be.’  
  
‘Hey!’ Ali decided to intervene running over to them and pulling them apart. ‘You, that way!’ she pushed Snape in the opposite direction. He stared incredulously at Sirius for the longest time but with a flick of his robes he scurried off, out of sight.   
  
‘What do you think you’re doing?’ Ali turned on Sirius and the moment their eyes connected she remembered her dream and stopped dead.  
  
‘Teaching Snivelly a lesson about staying out of other peoples business.’ Sirius grinned wickedly not noticing her falter.  
  
‘I should take points off you for starting a fight.’ Ali sighed.  
  
‘I didn’t start anything. He’s the imp throwing dark magic around like it’s going out of fashion. I’m doing the whole school a service.’ Sirius countered fastening his hands on each end of the tie that was hanging around his neck untied.   
  
‘Just move along Black.’ Aaliyah rubbed her temples after pushing him down the other end of the corridor, following along behind him in what she told herself was an attempt at keeping him out of trouble.  
  
‘Going to join me for lunch, Adams?’ Sirius called out to her as she followed along behind him.  
  
‘No!’ She shouted back keeping a five step fall back in some attempt to live up to her hatred of the boy in question.   
  
‘Are you sure?’ He definitely sounded like he was laughing.   
  
‘Yes!’ She shouted again.  
  
‘Got anything better than one worded answers?’ He asked as they followed the same path to the great hall.  
  
‘Yes!’ She wanted to kick herself for that reply. Sirius stopped and waited for her to catch up.  
  
‘There you go.’ He smiled at her as they began walking side by side, his previous anger with Snape seemingly forgotten.  
  
‘Shut up.’ She muttered staring ahead and ignoring him.   
  
‘As you wish.’ He saluted weakly and they reached the great hall together a few minutes later. When they walked inside Sirius took his usual seat straight away but Ali tried to make an escape to her own spot, failing only at the hands of one Remus Lupin.  
  
‘Oh no you  _don’t_.’ He ground out, seizing her robes and pulling her back. ‘Where the bloody hell have you been you silly prefect?’ Remus glared at her and Ali was totally affronted. She had never met a more moody side of him before.  
  
‘Avoiding you?’ It slipped out before she knew what was happening. Remus’s face got darker.  
  
‘I knew it! What the hell is wrong with you?  _Sit_!’ He commanded and pointed to the empty seat beside him across from James and Sirius. She complied instantly.  
  
‘Moody Moony, give her a break.’ Sirius argued with a light laugh and Aaliyah for the first time in her life found herself wishing she was sat beside him rather than the terrifying form of Remus Lupin at present.  
  
‘Padfoot you must go easy on poor Moody Moony today. Moody Moony is moonstrating, remember?’ James said and they both broke into howls of laughter. They were definitely making fun of Remus and from where Ali sat she didn’t know how good of an idea that was. You could almost see a vein pulsating on his temple.  _What the bloody hell is moonstrating?_  Ali thought glancing over at Remus.  
  
‘Where did Wormy go?’ James asked Sirius after they decided to leave Remus alone.  
  
‘I found Snivelly tormenting him again and sent him off to let McKinnon know to leave this one be today.’ He pointed a lazy thumb at Remus which Remus surveyed out the corner of his eye, but seemed to ignore. Who the hell was this boy? He certainly wasn’t her kind natured library friend. He was frightening.   
  
‘Are you okay Remus?’ Ali attempted with a very weary smile. His eyes were dull today as they darted over to her without his head changing position from where it was held up by his hand.  
  
‘Oh, fantastic. Feel like I could have been trampled by a rage of dragons but yeah, fighting fit.’ He gave her a thumbs up then slumped onto the table in front of him pushing his food aside. Aaliyah had no clue how to handle that. She was feeling very awkward indeed. She looked up at James and Sirius who were both laughing silently.  
  
‘You get used to that. He gets a little grumpy at certain times of the month.’ Sirius gave her a smile and James smacked his upper arm whispering something. At that point a few more students entered the hall and made their way over to the group.  
  
‘What’s wrong with you then?’ Marlene snapped down at Remus and he lifted his head giving her a pathetically downtrodden face.   
  
‘I’m warning you McKinnon. Today is  _not_  the day.’ Sirius supplied as Peter, Lily and Mary surrounded them.  
  
‘I got your message, boofhead. Shove up.’ Marlene directed to Sirius, then Remus. Ali shoved down the seats and Remus did the same. ‘Stop being such a baby.’ She snapped pulling Remus’ head into her chest after she sat down and began to play softly with his hair. The angry boy seemed to visibly relax and heaved a defeated sigh against her. Peter made to take a seat by Ali but Sirius jumped up on his seat, mounted the table and settled down beside her quite effortlessly.   
  
‘By me Wormtail.’ He waved beside him and Peter rolled his eyes. ‘Oh look at that Evans. You’ll have to sit by Prongs.’  
  
‘Such a shame.’ James announced.  
  
‘Truly a disservice.’ Mary agreed shrugging and taking a seat by James on the other side furthest from the wall so the only place left for Lily was the seat wedged between the wall and James Potter.   
  
‘You guys are getting so good at covering up your intentions!’ She sung jokingly taking the seat and not making a scene. James secured his hands under his chin and fluttered his lashes at her behind his glasses once she was down and she gave him a swift palm right to the face.  While he was trying to locate his fallen lenses Lily took the opportunity to look over to Ali and mouth  _are you okay_?   
  
Ali noticed instantly and gave her a quick thumbs up before turning her attention back to Remus and Marlene beside her. They were decidedly adorable. Remus was resting his whole body up against her, looking very tired and irritable. But Marlene was just happily wrapping parts of his hair around her fingers, soothing his mood and talking across the table to Lily now about something school related. James had picked up a conversation with Mary beside him and Peter was joining in from time to time. The only three that didn’t seem to be contributing to the lunch time chit chat were Remus, herself and Sirius. Remus she knew to be relishing in Marlene’s touch. When she dared to glance beside her at Sirius he had his arms behind his head in a casual manner, eyes shut and a smile on his face.   
  
Ali’s eyes went wide when she remembered her dream yet again. She looked away from Sirius quickly and tried to concentrate on something else around her. There was so much going on. She knew she had no chance of adding to the conversation as she was lacking in social casualness. It was then that she realised how very large of a group she was sitting smack bang in the middle of.  
  
With Sirius Black to the left of her and Remus Lupin to the right. Marlene on his side and Peter on Sirius’s. James Potter in front of her and Lily and Mary to either side of him. What the bloody hell was Aaliyah Adams doing in a huge group of Gryffindor sixth years? How did this even happen? What about her poor forgotten spot down the other end near Professor Sprout and the other staff members? She looked around her and her ears started to burn and her head started to whirl and she let it drop forward trying to find some quiet.   
  
‘You okay?’ She expected the words to have come from Lily but the hand on her back was definitely from her left-hand side. She gave Sirius a sideways glance and nodded a reply hoping the contact would stop before her cheeks betrayed her. He gave her a hard slap that made her cough and then laughed loudly at her.  
  
‘Very good, Adams.’ He replied and she found herself grinding her teeth and glaring at him rather than blushing. James and Marlene were laughing with Sirius now and Lily was giving her a sweet smile.


	22. Pranks gone wrong

As the boys readied themselves to meet Remus down at the shrieking shack, James and Peter messed around with the cloak laughing while Sirius had their map out and was surveying the halls, his spirits high. He smiled over at his friends and folded the map back up seeing that Filch was on the other side of the castle hovering around the Ravenclaw commons. The trap they had left Peter to set up earlier that day had been a success then. Even if it landed him face to face with Snape. That reminded Sirius of their argument earlier through the day and how he had told Snape how to get passed the whomping willow to confirm his assumptions towards Remus.   
  
There was a voice in Sirius’s head telling him he probably shouldn’t have told him the secret to the whomping willow. But Snape had aggrivated him beyond reasoning and all that resonated with him was the stench of revenge.   
  
‘Ready to go Padfoot?’ Peter beamed over at him.  
  
‘Hold on just a sec.’ Sirius stifled a laugh as he unfolded the map to see if Snape was stupid enough to have listened to him. Merlin he hoped so.  
  
‘Check this out.’ Sirius called the attention of the other two over, seeing as Remus had gone down at least twenty minutes ago and was most likely clawing at the walls already. James and Peter jumped on his bed looking down at the map.  
  
‘What’s Snivellus doing out of bed?’ James’s mouth twisted into a smile as his pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.  
  
‘Pity Filch isn’t near him.’ Peter pointed out seeing where Filch was near the west side of the school.   
  
‘I hope no one catches him.’ Sirius yawned casually. Snape had been so damn sure of himself when he had declared to Sirius that Remus was a werewolf. Was there a more perfect way to prove the git right?  
  
‘Why?’ James asked, a smile still lingering on his face.  
  
‘Oh, he was having a good old shriek at me today after I found him taunting Wormtail. Seemed  _very_  set on the idea that Remus was a werewolf.’   
  
Peter gasped. There was a very pregnant pause between them all as something dawned on James’s face.  
  
‘Remus  _is_  a werewolf, Sirius.’ James stated, losing his hold on his father’s cloak. Peter begun darting his eyes between them, looking on edge.  
  
‘Yeah, I’m  _aware_. He’s trying to get us caught, James. He’s being a little git.’  
  
‘What did you do Sirius?’ James asked. There was a low warning in his tone and Sirius looked over at him confused.  
  
‘What’s wrong with you?’ Sirius asked with a raised brow. His best friend had never been so sharp with him before. ‘I just told the little dark arts enthusiast about the whomping willow.’  
  
‘What?’ Peter squeaked.  
  
‘ _What_?’ James repeated.  
  
‘Well he was having a good old rant about how smart he was seeing the signs. So I told him to prove it.’  
  
‘What the  _fuck_  Sirius? What did you  _say_?’ James seemed to be getting shorter.  
  
‘Calm down, Prongs. It's not like the little git didn't deserve it. Sneaking around trying to get us in trouble, it's about time we returned the favour.’  
  
‘Sirius!’ James screamed snatching the map off him. ‘Are you fucking stupid?!’ But James ignored Sirius’s retort as he scanned the map. Snape was very much out of the dungeons now and had almost made it out onto the grounds.  
  
‘You don’t  _think_  do you!?’ James felt his anger rising by the second. He was  _furious_. He shot Sirius the iciest stare he had ever produced and then directed his attention to Peter.  
  
‘Both of you wait here!’ With that James grabbed his cloak and ran from the dorm as fast as he could. He would have been seeing red for Sirius’s amazingly poor judgement if it wasn’t for the panic filling his body for Remus and even a small part for Snape. If Snape managed to get to that bloody tree before James could get to him, knowing how to immobilize it now, there’s no telling to what could happen. Snape could have been killed. Remus would never forgive himself. He  _could not_ let that happen. His feet were making a lot more noise then he should have been allowing, but he didn’t have time for sneaking around. His invisible status would have to do for the time being. Once he had navigated himself down to the entrance hall he flew out the doors and ran off to the right where the whomping willow was located.   
  
He could feel the blood draining from his face as he got closer to the tree and heard the very low distant howls coming from the passage. He regained some momentum when he realised Snape had only just gotten there but the tree was frozen. He’d already used something to stop it in its tracks and he was about to climb down into the passage before James made a grab for the back of his robes, only just missing.  
  
‘Potter!’ Snape gave him a cold look before disappearing into the passage and James started to shake with anger and fear. What if Remus had gotten into the passage? Were his howls always loud enough to hear from the school?  
  
‘Snape! Snape you  _moron_! Stop!’ He shouted after him and followed suit, ducking into the passage and seeing Snape not far in front. ‘Would you  _stop_!?’  
  
‘You’re not going to stop me, Potter!’ Snape spat out, but a very loud shrilling howl made him halt where he stood.  
  
‘I’m not trying to stop you, you greasy idiot! I’m trying to save your stupid life!’ At that he secured a handful of the Slytherin’s robes and dragged him away from the approaching grunts and growls.  
  
‘It’s true! It’s true! He’s a werewolf! I was right!’ Snape was pointing as James dragged him back to the passage exit and when he looked ahead it seemed Remus had grown tired of his constraints and managed to gain passage to the tunnel by what was probably very forceful means. The werewolf froze in the distance catching sight of them.  
  
‘ _Fuck!_ ’ James heaved Snape out of the tunnel first and jumped out as fast as he could knowing the only thing that could save them now was the tree. Hopefully the pressing of its knot had worn off. ‘Move you stupid hook nose  _move_!’ James screamed and for once Snape listened to him and the two boys scrambled to their feet hearing the very real werewolf gaining on them. Just as they were on their feet one of the willow’s branches swooped overhead and smashed hard into the two of them, sending them clean across the lot.   
  
James was up before Snape and grabbed his robes once again and dragged him out of the willows reach and when he located his glasses he looked over to see the glint of Remus’s yellow eyes from the passage disappear.  
  
‘ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID?!’ James rounded on Snape.  
  
‘Sirius told me-‘  
  
‘I don’t give a fucking  _shit_  what Sirius told you?! What were you expecting to fucking gain from coming face to face with a  _fucking werewolf_!?’ James was seeing red now. He was seeing red for not only Snape’s stupidity. But for his best friends, also.  
  
‘He is a werewolf! That’s Lupin! I knew it!’  
  
‘Oh all hail Snivelly! You proved your theory! You got him! Were you willing to  _die_  in the process?’ James could actually feel tears welling up in his eyes. How could Sirius have been this reckless? How could he not have thought out his actions? He nearly had Snape killed at their best friend’s hands.  
  
‘I just wanted to see.’ Snape’s voice died a little as he clutched his side from where the tree had copped them. James realised they probably both needed the hospital wing. But he was so furious he didn’t know what to do next.   
  
‘And what’s going on here?’ Came the sound of their headmaster’s voice and James looked over to where he seemed to materialize out of nowhere. He felt tears running down his cheeks.  
  
‘James, you seem to be bleeding.’ Dumbledore gave him a very serene smile.  
  
‘Professor! Professor!’ Snape ignited as James dropped to his knees. ‘Lupin is a werewolf! He just tried to kill me! He’s a fully transformed werewolf! I  _saw_  it!’ He shouted and Dumbledore raised a hand to him, looking down over his half-moon spectacles at Snape with something very close to weary dislike.  
  
‘Severus. I am fully aware of Remus Lupin’s lycanthropy.’ There was a definite shortness to his words. ‘Seeing as you seem to have taken it upon yourself to make it your own business, I must instruct you that this information is  _not_  something to be shared. With  _anyone_. Am I understood?’ Dumbledore focused his strikingly bright gaze squarely on Snape and Snape seemed to feel the weight of his stare. He nodded one singular nod, not daring to look away. ‘Get to your feet, Severus. You both need to see the school nurse.’ He paused looking to James, ‘Once you have both been healed, I will speak to you each, separately.’  
  
James touched his abdomen and realised he was cut. He looked up to Dumbledore who was offering him a hand. As James took the help he felt tears falling soundlessly from his eyes. He couldn’t fathom the betrayal filling his entire body, penetrating him to his core. Betrayal he had just been smacked with from someone he believed to be his  _brother_.  
  
‘What happened?’ Dumbledore asked him as they began their walk back to the castle with Snape close to his other side.  
  
‘Sirius that stupid mut!’ James swore pulling his glasses off to dry his eyes. ‘Thought it would be funny to tell Snape how to get passed the willow.’  
  
Dumbledore cleared his throat, ‘I would have thought that wasn’t information any of you should have had to give?’  
  
James didn’t know how to answer his headmaster. His emotions were overflowing. He was so angry he was crying. His side was aching. He wanted to punch Snivellus in the face. He wanted to punch Sirius in the face. He didn’t know what he wanted right now but he was comforted when Dumbledore placed a hand on his shoulder.  
  
When they arrived at the hospital wing Dumbledore spoke to the matron and while she was taking care of James, he made his way over to Snape. They had put him in the bed furthest from James. Dumbledore spoke to him for a very long time. It didn’t look at all pleasant. But once Poppy was done with James’ wound he found he didn’t really care about Snape. Snape was safe. He wasn’t dead. He hadn’t been infected. This meant Remus would be okay. He turned over in the hospital bed and pulled the pillow around his face. At that moment in time didn’t know what he was supposed to do concerning his best friends absolute lack of concern to the lives of both Remus and Snape.   
  
The next morning when James woke up Remus was in the bed beside him smiling very weakly.   
  
‘Morning.’ Was all he managed to slip out before a tear betrayed his smile and he turned his face upward.  
  
‘This is  _not_  your fault, Moony.’ James sat up instantly and looked over to the bed Snape had been in. He seemed to be gone.  
  
‘Please don’t call me that. Not today.’ Remus asked politely wiping his face with the sleeve of his pyjamas. There were so many fresh cuts covering every inch of skin James could see. Without the Marauders around to entertain him, he was back to his old tortured ways.   
  
‘Remus.’ James left his bed and pulled up beside him. ‘It was Sirius. He fucked up. This is not you. Please don’t blame yourself.’  
  
‘What if I killed him? What if I killed  _you_?  _What if I turned you both_? What was Padfoot thinking?’ Remus’ wet eyes met James’s and James had to fight not to swear.  
  
‘I have no clue. I honestly don’t have a fucking clue. He’s a moron. I’ve never been so mad with him. He’s just- He’s just a fucking  _idiot_  Black like the rest of his family.’ James spat.  
  
‘James.’ Remus pulled back. James settled on the side of Remus’s bed and they lingered in silence for a while, just thinking. James grabbed Remus hand and gave it a squeeze.  
  
‘This was  _not_  your fault.’ He reassured him once more and Remus gave a very unconvincing smile in return.   
  
A few hours later as the morning grew into a more respectable hour to be awake the hospital wing doors creaked open and James’s head popped up from where it had been resting on Remus’s bed. Remus had drifted back to sleep, clearly still exhausted from last night’s battle against himself. James on the other hand couldn’t stop his brain from working.  
  
‘You!’ James spat standing up instantly from where he sat in a chair with Remus.   
  
Sirius and Peter had snuck into the wing and Sirius stopped dead, looking as ashamed as James had hoped he would.  
  
‘Prongs-'  
  
‘Don’t!’ James silenced him and Peter scurried away from Sirius to Remus’s bedside.   
  
‘I want to say-‘ Sirius started again but James looked around for something to throw.  
  
‘Fuck off!’ He shouted and with that the matron came rushing out. James found a cup from a previous potion on Remus’s side table and launched it at Sirius.  
  
‘Boys!’ Dumbledore’s voice boomed out of nowhere as he caught the cup before it hit Sirius, who didn’t seem to make a move to dodge it at all. All four boys shrunk down and Madam Pomfrey even jolted where she stood.   
  
‘Sorry, Poppy.’ Dumbledore gave her a curt nod but his usual airy demeanour was nowhere to be seen. ‘I must have a serious discussion. With  _all_  of you.’  
  
‘I don’t want to be anywhere near him!’ James pointed at Sirius. Sirius hung his head behind Dumbledore and raised one arm to scratch the back of his other elbow.   
  
‘Quiet.’ Dumbledore requested and motioned Sirius along to join the other three.  
  
‘I am  _very_  disappointed in the happenings of last night.’ He told them once they were all gathered. Sirius stood as far away from the group as he could. He didn’t dare look up at his friends.  
  
‘Fortunately, Mister Potter seemed to negate any severe damage. But what happened last night could have been devastating for many people, myself included. If word got out about Remus, it would put many people in a strict position. Not only could Severus have been killed, or infected, but Remus could very well have been imprisoned. I may have been imprisoned for allowing him to come to Hogwarts. I have known for some time that three of you were aware of Remus’s condition. I thought it harmless. Perhaps even better this way for Remus. But last night you have shown me I must not trust students so carelessly.’ His last words were directed to Sirius who still would not raise his head.  
  
‘Word seems to have gotten around the school that James has saved Snape from a monster. This unfortunately means you will both have to be punished for being out of bed past curfew.’  
  
No one made a comment, but Sirius heaved a sigh.  
  
‘Mister Black.’ Dumbledore’s voice was crisp. ‘You will be serving detention every night for the next three weeks for your momentous offence against not only another student, but one of your friends. I am disappointed in your lack of tact. You will report to Professor McGonagall tonight at six sharp for details.’  
  
‘Yes, Professor.’ Were Sirius’s only words.  
  
‘Remus, I hope you’re feeling better. Peter, do keep him company as I feel he will need his friends most desperately at this time.’ Dumbledore directed to the mousey boy cowering beside Remus. Remus looked dejected and pathetic in his bed. James was glaring at Sirius still.  
  
‘James, you will be serving a detention with Severus tonight. I want you in my office at six.’ Dumbledore heaved a sigh.  
  
‘I do not enjoy encounters such as these, boys. You’re some of my brightest students. I hoped for much more from you. I want you to learn from this. It does not benefit anyone to seek revenge.’ With that he secured a hand on Sirius’s shoulder and led him from the wing.  
  
The three boys left all looked around at each other but no one knew what to say. 

*

  
McGonagall sighed deeply offering Aaliyah a seat in her office. She pulled off her square frames and cleaned them with her robes as Ali took her seat.  
  
‘Is everything alright, Professor?’ She asked politely.   
  
‘I need to ask you a favour, Miss Adams.’ McGonagall sighed. ‘Of course I don’t expect you to take this on alone so close to your exams, I’ll be asking a few of the other prefects as well as the teachers.’ She explained. Ali was getting nervous. What was she going to ask her?  
  
‘Mister Black has gone and landed himself a detention every night for the next three weeks for a very serious transgression.’ At her professors words Ali’s fear dried up and floated away like a dust particle. Of course it was Sirius Black, the monumental screw up. What else would it be?  
  
‘What has the oaf done this time?’ She squeezed out in a monotone, her face expressionless.  
  
‘I’m not at liberty to say. Very private matter, Adams.’ She was shaking her head. She seemed in the same sense disappointed and very saddened.   
  
‘Wow. He’s actually reached expulsion status?’ Aaliyah felt her heart race a little, panic stricken, she wasn’t entirely sure why.   
  
‘Oh, close to Adams.’ She placed her glasses back on and took a seat of her own. ‘It’s  _very_  serious. All being dealt with by the headmaster himself.’ Ali’s eyes went wide. Dumbledore only dealt with very, very high matters. What the hell had Sirius  _done_?  
  
‘It’s ok, Professor. I can take care of the detentions. I usually just read and study after classes anyway, I can do that while watching him. It’s no trouble.’  
  
‘Oh, that’s very kind of you Adam’s but I don’t want you-'  
  
‘No, no. I’d really like to help.’ She insisted and McGonagall surveyed her for a moment.  
  
‘Well, that’s very amiable of you. Once you’ve seen them through I’ll be sure to add fifty house points to Gryffindor in your name. Thank you, Miss Adams. You’ve made my day a lot easier.’  
  
‘It’s okay, Professor. You teachers have it hard enough.’ She gave her a small smile before standing. ‘When are these detentions to start?’  
  
McGonagall gave a strangled sigh, ‘Tonight, Adams.’  
  
Aaliyah swallowed hard.


	23. Role reversal

‘Wadjya do?’ Ali asked over her book to Sirius who was pouring over some class notes.  
  
‘Shhh.’ Sirius silenced her. He hadn’t said much more than that over the past week. Ali had taken it upon herself to supervise his nightly detentions. She had scouted an empty classroom on the sixth floor and made it into a punishment study session. Seeing as exams were coming up she thought it best they both kept their faces buried behind books. Seeing as Sirius was never seen studying, she thought it was a fair sentence. They took away nearly every second of spare time he had so she thought he would have been kicking up more of a fuss about them.   
  
‘Musta been  _bad_.’ She heaved, flopping her book down on the desk dramatically as it echoed around the empty room. Usually she wasn’t one to press a conversation but Sirius had done it to her enough times over their previous detentions so she pinned this down to pay back. There were a couple of small fires lit around the room for light, which were flickering away creating the only noise besides her voice. Sirius had been overly quiet. Not one flirtatious comment sent her way. No complaints. No requests to get out early. Nothing.  
  
‘Shh.’ He raised a finger to his mouth and looked back down at his notes. His face was marred with worry as it had been since their solo sessions had started. Ali sighed. Her favourite thing in the  _world_  was reading quietly, but she was restless. They’d been reading quietly for the past seven days. When Dumbledore said  _every night,_  boy did he mean it. Saturdays and Sundays were no exception.   
  
Ali rolled her eyes and looked back down at her OWL revision. Being who she was of course she was on top of all of this stuff. She had made revision sheets for all her classes. She even made up quizzes for herself at the ends of all her notes.  
  
‘Do you need a hand with anything?’ She offered looking back over at Sirius. He sighed.  
  
‘No, Adams. Just read.’ She raised a brow at that reply. It was the first time anything besides  _shh_  had left his lips.  
  
She tried again, ‘Wadjya doooo?’  
  
Sirius looked up at her and at first it was a piercing glare. His grey eyes connected with hers and she felt herself draw back. But then he relaxed into his saddened state and sighed again.  
  
‘Something bad.’ His finger started tapping on his page.  
  
‘Well, clearly.’ Ali motioned around them. Detention every damn night for three weeks was  _very_  serious.  
  
‘I can’t tell you. It’s not my place.’ He rested his head in the hand not tapping his notes.  Ali kept watching him. She rested her own head on her quill free hand and watched him for some time. He never stopped studying. It was so strange to see him like this. Quiet. Cautious. Not the carefree Sirius everyone seemed to love. She watched as his hands ran over his parchment making notes for his defence classes. Tapping away like he had a nervous tick.  
  
His hair was falling over his face blocking view to it, but he was definitely frowning. His face didn’t look good like that. Well, it didn’t look normal anyway. He was being constantly plagued by something and it was eating at Ali and she didn’t know  _why_?   
  
What did it matter that Sirius Stringbrain Black was upset? How many other people had he made upset? How many times had he upset  _her_  personally?  _What did it matter_?  
  
 _Gosh darn it, it mattered_!   
  
‘Anything you wanna… talk about?’ She was trying her upmost to keep the talk casual. She didn’t really  _do_  casual. She tried to look casual. Act casual. She was failing. When she looked over at Sirius he was biting his lip and frowning at her.  
  
‘What?’ She stopped what she was doing.  
  
‘You look like you’re in pain?’  
  
‘Oh.’ She straightened up. Apparently she  _really_  didn’t do casual. ‘Well. You’re no better you know. You look like a kicked dog.’ Ali countered sizing him up. Sirius sighed again.  
  
‘Oh enough with the sighing! Your life is not a tragedy!’ She smacked her hand down on the desk. This got his attention as he jolted up in his chair.  
  
‘Will you just  _talk_ about it? If I have to guard you like a bloody dog for the next fourteen days I will not have you moping around like that! Books are  _fun,_  Sirius!’ At that he cracked a smile. She didn’t know why.  
  
‘Honestly? I got in this mess for telling a secret I shouldn’t have. I cannot, and will not ever do it again. Sorry, but you’ll have to put up with kicked-dog-Sirius for a little longer.’ He turned his head back down to his revision and Ali’s face went limp. She had been so  _close_! She didn’t know why she was getting so worked up over it. But it had been the same the time the boys had started disappearing towards the beginning of the year. It had nearly driven her insane. She eyed Sirius off where he sat and huffed.  
  
She tried hard to concentrate on study. Since when had she ever had to  _try_  to do that? Never. Never! Sirius Black was the absolute  _worst_ , she thought. She stared at him. She swished her quill back and forth over her nose staring at him. She glared at him. She raised her left brow at him. The bastard never looked up from his bloody parchment. Who was he?  _Her_? This was ridiculous. She blew out a deep sigh of her own, ridding her face of a few stray curls. He looked up at that. Their eyes connected for a moment.   
  
‘Adams, you really need to stop that.’ He said simply before looking back down.  
  
‘Stop what?’ she narrowed her eyes. This was going to be it. Normal Sirius was going to return. He was going to say something suggestive. He was going to be a git. A prat. An idiot. A no-good, insolent, arrogant, Prince BLACK THE MOST ANNOY BOY TO EVER WALK HOGWARTS CORRIDORS!   
  
‘Sighing. If I can’t. You can’t.’ He didn’t even look up from his note taking. She blinked for about thirty seconds trying to recover from that.  
  
Two more hours ticked by in this dry, humourless state and Ali was about ready to smash her own face into the table. Why did she offer to do this? This new Sirius was even more annoying than the old Sirius. He just  _sat_  there. Reading. And taking notes. It was unnerving. She didn’t like it. She didn’t like it  _at all_.  
  
‘Right. You can go.’ She announced. Sirius’s head jolted up in concern.   
  
‘But, aren’t I supposed to be here until nine thirty every night now?’ He asked checking the time.   
  
‘I don’t care. Go back to your dorm and be normal. I’m done with this pathetic sight.’ She threw her nose in the air.  
  
‘No.’ He bit out and turned back to his work.   
  
‘Go, Black!’ She shouted pointing to the door.  
  
‘No!’ He shouted back glaring over at her.  
  
‘Will you get out of my sight?!’  
  
‘I’m not supposed to leave this room!’  
  
‘I’m telling you to leave the room!’  
  
‘It’s only eight-thirty!’  
  
‘I make the rules!’  
  
‘You have no bloody authority to do that!’  
  
‘I’m the bloody prefect!’  
  
‘I know how detentions work!’  
  
‘Since when have you ever been like this!?’   
  
‘Since none of my friends will even speak to me!’ He shouted back pounding his fists on the desk and making Ali jump, she knocked her ink pot over in the process.  
  
‘Shit, sorry.’ He got up from his table and made his way over to her. ‘I’m really sorry.’ He pulled his wand out and Ali just sat back and watched him as her cleaned up the mess. She had a saddened look on her face that she wasn’t even aware she was wearing. It was like seeing the fall of a king, scrounging around gathering what he could, being kicked at by common-folk. She actually felt sorry for him.  
  
‘I didn’t mean to scare you.’ He spoke softly holding onto her ink pot where he had now returned all the ink to with his wand.  
  
‘I know.’ She placed her hand over his for a moment. It felt like the right thing to do. She was terrible at this kind of stuff but he was just so pathetic right now her instincts reacted. His jaw tightened and he lowered his head further so his hair was covering his face. When she tried to pull her hand away he grabbed it in his, discarding the ink pot and sank down to desk level.   
  
Ali felt her cheeks redden as he held her hand in his own and placed his forehead down next to their entwined fingers.   
  
‘I fucked up.’ He mumbled into the desk.  
  
‘I gathered.’ She replied patting there interlocked hands with her free one uncomfortably.   
  
‘I just don’t weigh out the consequences of my actions well enough. I just kind of jump into things. I’m a moron.’ Ali watched him appraisingly as he spoke to the desk.   
  
‘Well? Of course you are.’ She shrugged and when he looked up, she pulled her hand away. She glued her eyes to his even with their close proximity. ‘You always have been. What’s changed now?’ She left a slight pause in which Sirius had no reply. ‘You are a moron. You’ve always jumped into things. You have never in your life weighed up consequences from what I’ve seen.’  
  
He looked up at her, resting his chin on his hand and raising a brow.  
  
  
‘You’re Sirius Black. The idiot that hexes others students  _in front_  of prefects.’ He frowned. ‘You  _constantly_  get up to reckless stuff around this school with your mates. You’re going to give me grey hair before I turn twenty. The stuff you did last term alone is a testament to that. You fuck up daily. I honestly don’t understand why this time is any different?’  
  
‘You don’t understand.’ He started but she cut him off.  
  
‘No, I don’t. I don’t have the full story and to be honest it’s eating at me.’  
  
The makings of a smirk tugged at his lips, ‘you’re a know-it-all.’  
  
‘Yes. I pride myself on it. But honestly, Black, if your friends aren’t talking to you over some prank you pulled that was reckless, made you out to be a moron and endangered someone… then they’re the ones being unreasonable. Isn’t that who you are?’  
  
He stared at her, ‘Well… No. Not this time. This time I’m an asshole.’  
  
‘Isn’t that what I  _just_  said?’ She rolled her eyes and smacked him on the head. ‘Yes. I tell you that daily do I not? You  _are_  an asshole. Arrogant. Rude. Conceited. All of the above. So why is this time any different? You’re the same old troublemaker to me.’  
  
‘Well at least you still treat me the same.’ He gave her half a grin.  
  
‘Hmm, yes. Always, Black.’ She surveyed him for a moment before deciding something. ‘So? Get back to your notes. We’re here until nine thirty, stop slacking off.’ She glared down her nose at him and he let lose just one, singular laugh.   
  
‘Can I stay here?’   
  
‘Sit at a desk you fool.’ She shook her head at him as he got up and returned to his seat. As she watched him go she felt something twitch in her throat. They didn’t talk again after that. Nine thirty came and went and they read their books quietly. By close to midnight she decided it was about time to get to sleep. They packed up some of their things, leaving behind the stuff they would be returning to the next night and left the classroom together.  
  
‘Thanks, Adams.’ Sirius spoke quietly when they were inside the common room and about to part ways to climb the stairs.   
  
‘See you tomorrow night then, moron.’ She spoke without looking at him and climbed the stairs to her bed. She lay awake for an hour going over in her head what could have possibly happened to break the boys up. They were four of the closest students at the school. Since Tuesday last week when she had sat down to lunch with them everything had literally fallen to pieces. The next day Sirius, James, Remus and strangely Snape had all been absent from meals. The first night she oversaw Sirius’s detention he was the personification of a raincloud. Dank, depressed and broody. But she hadn’t really expected much more. A three week sentence was rather hefty.  
  
It was every other thing happening around him that interested her. James Potter refusing to  _speak_  to Sirius Black? Remus Lupin turning away from him. Peter Pettigrew shrugging and following the others lead.  
  
Something big was going on with Remus, too. He was throwing Marlene for a loop. Ali had caught the backend of one of her conversations when she had been behind them coming up the stairs. There had been a lot of ‘he won’t explain anything’s and ‘refuses to touch me’ and ‘says he’s no good for me’. Truly, she tuned out to a lot of it as it didn’t really entice her hunger for answers. Lupin had shut himself off from everyone. He had been in the hospital wing for four days before returning to the common room on Saturday afternoon and just sulked up to his dorm followed by James and Peter.  
  
Anyone that asked any kind of questions about whether or not he was okay, or why he had so many cuts on his face and arms, got a mouth full of James Potter.  
  
James was the worst. His mood was black. He was shouting at anyone and everyone around the school. Even Lily Evans. She had approached him at one point after he yelled at a third year for getting in his way and he bit out a menacing retort that could probably have been some of the kindest words he’d spoke that week, but still weren’t anything close to what he usually showered her in. Everyone was  _shocked_. Lily most of all. She had tried to act like it hadn’t affected her and left it alone but Ali saw her later with Mary rubbing her shoulder.  
  
The Gryffindor commons were in utter chaos. Even though this change was probably beneficial to Ali as it saw the resident troublemakers disbanded and she wasn’t pulling them up and depleting their house points. She was still supervising detentions every night with Sirius but they weren’t any trouble for her. She’d managed to make those somewhat fun for herself. None of the boys were causing  _her_  any kind of trouble at present. Poor Lily and Dirk were being over worked with their Gryffindor head boy and the last remaining seventh year prefect being left with all the remaining duties and patrols as Remus and Ali were out of action for the time being.  
  
Ali wondered if order would ever be restored to their home? Then she began turning over ideas of what Sirius could have done to cause such disarray? She meant every word she said to him. She didn’t understand such a vast change in attitude from Remus and James. James was acting like a bloody five year old. She’d never seen someone so angry for so long. She wasn’t in their classes and oh was she glad for that. At least she had some kind of norm to settle into during the day. She hated changes in routine, they disturbed and upset her. She wondered how the sixth years put up with it?  
  
She tossed and turned going over and over the details in her head. Tuesday at lunch everyone had sat together laughing. Remus was the only strange one of note and even he had settled down at the sight of Marlene. Now he refused to see Marlene and boarded himself up in his dorm. James and Sirius had been on perfect terms as they always were. They could very well have been a couple the way they carried on and now if Sirius came within a ten metre radius of him, James would snap and Sirius was sulk away.  
  
It was twisted. Peter seemed to just be laying low but even laying low, he wasn’t laying low with Sirius. She found them all to be very hypocritical. Whatever Sirius had done, did they not expect that of him? He was rash. He was impulsive and careless. He demonstrated that fact daily from the get-go. These were the types of things she could never get her head around. One minute her cousin Nay was taunting her cousin Misha. The next minute he was pushing over another kid for doing what he did. Some people were completely mental. She wished she could explain it away with some kind of logic.  
  
If the boys all accepted Sirius for the things he did before, this was not any different. It was eating away her brain not knowing what had happened. There were of course rumours around the school, but no one could trust those. James Potter had pushed Snape down a ditch filled with flesh-eating slugs. Severus Snape had challenged James to a duel for Lily Evans affection. James Potter and Severus Snape were secretly in love. James Potter had tried to feed Severus Snape to a  _werewolf_. Like, honestly? Some of the things they came up with were completely deranged.  
  
But then there was Sirius. What had Sirius done? All this talk about James and Snape and yet the boys served one detention and were off the hook. Snape seemed to be in the bad books with the teachers and staff however. But Sirius. Three weeks detention. Ali was the perfect prefect, she just did as she was asked and didn’t complain or press matters. But for once she wished she had. What had Sirius Black  _done_?  
  
Something bad enough that his three best friends had all turned their backs on him. Something bad enough that the teachers and staff were all furious with him. Something bad enough that Dumbledore himself seemed to be angry with him. Something bad enough that Sirius Black seemed to be furious with himself. Ali sighed, staring up at her canopy above and stroking Snowball beside her. She felt sorry for Sirius Black. For the first time in her life she truly felt sorry for Sirius Black.


	24. The path of forgiveness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not in anyway own any of JK Rowlings writing. I have used a direct scene from DH in this chapter, but I have attempted to change it enough to fit this story. DON'T SUE ME JK I LOVE YOU.

Lily was at her wits end this week. Again. As she trudged up the many stairs and down the many corridors she was patrolling on her own she rubbed the underside of her eyes. Yes, definitely bags there. She wasn’t cut out for this kind of stress. It had been a two weeks since news had spread about the boys in her year having quite literally the biggest falling out since they had begun at Hogwarts. The Gryffindor monarchy was in anarchy so to speak. The boys weren’t talking to Sirius. Well, James wasn’t talking to Sirius. He seemed to be outcast from the tightknit group completely for the time being.  
  
Remus Lupin who she had thought to have been sick through the whole ordeal had completely withdrawn himself from anyone and anything. Marlene was furious. They’d really hit it off and he really seemed to compliment Marlene’s go-getter attitude. Remus was a logical guy. He thought things through and had patience and a sweet air about him. Marlene was a force to be reckoned with. He seemed to bring out the best in her and her the best in him. But it had been so very short lived. Remus flat out refused to see her now.  
  
Then there was the most troublesome of the lot. James Yells-A-Lot Potter. Boy was he in a foul, stinking mood. Lily knew some of the details of course. It had leaked around the school. She had pieced together the most plausible bits and figured out that Snape, her stupid idiot of an  **ex-** best friend, had been so keen to prove he was right about his outlandish theories (which he’d thankfully only told her about) of Remus Lupin being a bloody werewolf, he had snuck out onto the grounds on a full moon. That part sounded right enough. It was when she heard that none other than James Potter had come to his rescue that she had to reassess. But that was the detention she had been asked to supervise.   
  
Awkward could not have come close to describing that night. Apparently saint-Adams had offered to take  _all_  of Sirius Black’s detentions. Honestly? All of them. Bless, she cared for the girl and all but who in their right mind would offer themselves up for that kind of torture? When McGonagall had come to Lily next, well of course she had to bloody supply their head of house with some kind of equivalent. It wasn’t three damn weeks’ worth, but sitting between a furious James Potter and a sulking Severus Snape was pretty darn close where Lily was concerned. She shuddered thinking about it. She was quite nearly the only student that could have done it.   
  
‘Hey, Evans! You’re good to go. I’ll take it from here.’ Jamie Rowle, their head boy waved over at her. She sighed in relief. With both Remus and Ali out of action, Lily was doing rounds at least three times a week. This was  _not_  how she wanted to spend the last weeks of her sixth year. Thanks to a Ministry raid over in Hogsmeade they’d even had to cancel their most recent planned trip. The war was weighing down heavier and heavier on the students even in their out of reach fortress.   
  
After she’d offered a thanks to Jamie and turned around to climb up to the dorms she started to think back to days prior when she’d confronted James for yelling at a third year. Lily had a strong attitude towards bullies. James would be no different. He’d been such an arse about everything since that Tuesday night. But when she’d pulled on his jumper and crossed her arms over her chest and told him to ‘watch it, Potter.’ The words he returned had stung.  
  
 _‘Leave me the hell alone, Evans I don’t care about your bloody mood swings today.’_  
  
She knew she was being somewhat of a brat when Mary had to console her about it later on. James had hexed her before sure and she, in turn, had dished it straight back. She’d always been a strong character. But she didn’t like James Potter averting her eyes and calling her out on being moody. It was something she knew about herself already. Yes, she was known foremost for being kind. Everyone told her about it. ‘Oh Lily, you’re so wonderful and kind, I wish I was more like you.’ Sure. What they didn’t know was that Lily was also stubborn, could hold one hell of a grudge and certainly had her fair share of mood swings. No one was perfect.   
  
But having James Potter call her out on something she personally saw in herself as a blatant fault  _stung_. And yes she licked her wounds for a time after it.   
  
By the time she had reached the seventh floor she saw a familiar face she certainly could have done  _without_.  
  
‘What do  _you_  want?’ She spat at Snape as he blocked her way from going any further.  
  
‘Oh come on, Lily. I thought we were supposed to be friends?  _Best_  friends?’ Snape looked just as limp and uninviting as usual.  
  
‘We  _were,_  Sev. We  _were_. Or have you forgotten the events of last year? Or maybe the people you actively surround yourself with? I’ve honestly had enough of these sporadic pity parties. Leave me alone.’ She spoke the words with finality. She wanted this to be the last time she would have to say this.  
  
‘Shall I remind you yet again about Avery and Mulciber?  _Mulciber_? I detest them. The whole lot of them are creepy. I won’t so easily forget what they attempted to do on Mary.’  
  
Snape sighed at this, ‘That? It was nothing. They were just looking for a laugh. It’s all on the same level as your precious Gryffindor princes. They do-‘  
  
‘Oh shut it, the stuff Mulciber pulled was  _dark magic_. It wasn’t funny in the slightest. And honestly Sev what the hell do Potter and his mates have to do with this?’  
  
‘I- well, you heard! Them sneaking out at night, on the full moon, I was right!’  
  
‘Stop it! Just stop it! You’re obsessed! Lupin was ill. I saw him in the hospital wing myself. And do you even hear how ungrateful you’re being? I know exactly what that detention was for the other day. You sneaking down to prove a point and nearly getting yourself killed on the grounds. Potter saved you!’  
  
‘Saved?  _Saved?_ ’ He spat as he tried to gain some height. Oh Snape did not like that at all. ‘I wouldn’t have needed saving if it weren’t for his idiot friend! They nearly got me killed! Why do you think Sirius Black is serving three  _weeks_  of detention right now?’  
  
‘I suppose you’re going to be the one to tell me?’ Lily was growing very tired of this conversation.  
  
‘Snape,’ this was no time for nicknames, nor a time for first names, he needed to know that their once strong friendship would be nothing but a memory from here on out. ‘I’ve had enough, leave me alone.’  
  
‘No- you’re not- you can’t- I won’t, Lily, I won’t let you just-‘  
  
‘You won’t let me? You won’t  _let me_?’ Her blood was boiling. ‘Move it, Snape before you lose your eyebrows.  _Permanently._ ’He refused to budge and that’s when Lily took it into her own hands, shoving him aside to gain access to the corridor leading to the portrait hole.  
  
‘If you so much as come near me again, I’ll hex you to the point it will make Mulciber cry.’ With her final words said she stormed down the corridor and shouted the password at the Fat Lady. She looked very annoyed, but swung open all the same. When she came into the common room it was fairly emptied out. Everyone knew that a good amount of the younger girls stuck around to watch the sixth year boys banter together, but with Sirius trapped in detentions, James Potter shouting at anything with a pulse, Peter Pettigrew cowering from his friends and Remus Lupin seemingly contracting depression there wasn’t much left for them. There was only one other person in the common room tonight.  
  
‘Lupin?’ Lily enquired and he looked up from the fire. His once bright eyes were dull husks and he looked somewhat upset at being found.  
  
‘Hey.’ He breathed out.   
  
‘How are you feeling?’ She made her way over to him but he just placed his head in his hands. His reply was more of a huff of air than any real words and Lily took a seat beside him, regardless of his attitude. What was that about stubborn again?  
  
‘Would you like to talk to someone?’   
  
‘Not really.’  
  
‘Let me rephrase that. You should talk to someone.’ It could almost have been a snap. Her attitude was still dampened by her run in with Snape.  
  
‘I can’t say I’m really in the mood. I’ll probably just hurt you. Or someone. Seems to be all I’m good at.’ Remus shrugged and Lily raised a brow at him. She had always know Remus to be a bit of a martyr, but that sentence was pathetic.  
  
‘Would you like to stop sucking your thumb for a minute maybe and tell me what you’re having a mope-fest out here on your own about?’ She got comfortable in the armchair beside him and Lupin stared at her incredulously. ‘Yeah I’m not about egging on this behaviour. I get that you’re upset, Lupin. And by all means you probably have a right to be. But from what I’ve seen you don’t really have anyone to talk to that isn’t either screaming at people or hiding behind pillars in the halls.’  
  
She didn’t take her eyes off him and he kept his on her.   
  
‘How’s Marlene?’ He asked looking down at his lap.  
  
‘I suppose she’d be better if you spoke to her. She’s been in a right foul mood. Nothing like Potter of course, so I can’t really complain.’  
  
‘He’s alright.’ Remus shrugged. ‘He’s just really upset with Sirius. I don’t think he knows how to deal with being any kind of upset with Sirius.’  
  
‘I wish you would all just talk about it.’ Lily offered stretching her hands above her head.  
  
‘I don’t think I ever want to talk about it again.’ Remus hung his head in shame. Lily’s green eyes narrowed on him and she flipped down one of her arms and clicked her thumb and forefinger right in front of his face.  
  
‘Oy. None of that. Tell me, what happened?’ She hated to admit it but with the way they were all acting, she had begun to believe Snape with his ideas about Lupin. No one would be this depressed over nothing.  
  
‘I can’t. I’m not supposed to.’ He sighed. ‘I shouldn’t.’ He spoke the last words like they were the shackles on his life.  
  
‘You know, Remus, I haven’t had the easiest time at this school myself. I’ve been made fun of. Taunted. James bloody Potter wouldn’t leave me alone to long enough to shower for an entire week once, but that’s not really on the same level as having Snape shout to the entire school that you have dirty  _blood_.’  
  
Remus was surveying her and his expression had softened.  
  
‘You’re not the only one that gets picked on. Everyone goes through it.’  
  
‘It’s not being picked on that bothers me. I don’t mind people calling me things. It’s merited. I probably deserve it.’  
  
‘Oh now  _that_  stinks!’ She folded her arms. ‘How on earth would someone as beautifully natured and delightful as  _you_  deserve to be called anything other than a wonderful wizard?’  
  
‘I’m not wonderful. I’m so far from wonderful.’  
  
‘Prove it. What have you done?’ Remus looked up at her appraisingly but decided against something at the last minute. ‘Honestly, have you not been listening to what I’ve been saying from the beginning, Remus? I get called names by the elitist gits at this school. They don’t think someone like me deserves to be here. I should go back to my muggle household and learn how to be a muggle. Do you agree with them?’  
  
‘No, of course not. You’re an excellent witch, Lily. You’re better than I am at almost everything.’  
  
‘See? So, what if I was to listen to the idiots that believed that kind of thing? I’d just pack up my things and leave. Why bother fighting it? They’re going to be doing this to me  _my whole life_. Racist slander and remarks my whole life. Not worth it, is it? I should just believe them. Sink into a hole of despair.’  
  
‘It’s not the same, Lily.’  
  
‘Isn’t it?’ She gave him a warning look. As she surveyed his reaction they both became aware of something. The look Remus gave Lily at those words spoke legions.   
  
‘You- Snape told you?’ He fell over his words.  
  
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about Remus? I’m discussing myself.’ She decided to ignore it. This didn’t change him in the slightest to her. She hadn’t grown up with the prejudice like many of her classmates must have, and regardless, Remus was a beautiful boy inside and out.  
  
‘All I’m trying to say is my life isn’t going to get any easier for me if I give into their taunting. I have to rise above it. I have to do things for me and believe in myself. But most importantly I have to do it  _for me_. You can’t fight a battle over yourself for someone else.’ When she looked at him, a small tear slid down his cheek and she stood up from her chair and immediately descended on him without another word.  
  
‘You are a precious part of so many people’s worlds Remus. Please don’t ever forget that. You bring a smile to my face. You bring a smile to all of your friend’s faces. You certain brought a smile to Marlene’s face, even if at the moment she wants to smack you.’ She felt him laugh slightly in the tight hug she was engulfing him in.  
  
‘It’s okay to be sad.’ She added. Depression wasn’t something anyone could just  _get over_. ‘But we’re all here for you. I’m here for you. I’ll help you fight whatever you need to fight.’ She could feel him crying into the nook of her shoulder and neck. She stroked the back of his head for what felt like forever while they stayed silent. She needed this hug just as much as he did and she wasn’t about to let him go.   
  
It wasn’t until two people quietly crept through the portrait hole that Lily loosened her grip and the two were met with Adams and Black.   
  
‘Well, this isn’t awkward at all.’ Ali spoke in a brazen, sarcastic manner that Lily had never heard her use before. Sirius was pulling up behind her looking decidedly pathetic and almost latching onto her presence.   
  
‘Shut up, Adams, everyone needs a hug from time to time.’ Lily wiped Remus’s cheeks for him quickly and stood up while Ali laughed lightly.  
  
‘Just trying to lighten the mood.’ She started whistling and Sirius fidgeted behind her.  
  
‘I should, er, get to bed.’ Remus gave Lily a kind smile, trying to thank her silently. He looked somewhat higher in spirits, even though his eyes were red.  
  
‘Wait.’ Sirius spoke up. ‘Can I? Can I please talk to you for a moment? Without… James?’  
  
‘Ah yes, quiet hard to apologise when someone’s screaming about toast, or quidditch, or lessons, isn’t it?’ Lily rolled her eyes. Remus gave her a small laugh.  
  
‘Come on, Adams. I don’t think we’re needed anymore.’ She gave Remus a reassuring clutch of the shoulder and placed a light kiss on his forehead before walking over to the other two and pulling the shorter prefect away from Sirius. Sirius looked like a baby duckling that had been separated from its mother.   
  
‘What on earth is going on there?’ Lily asked Adams as she linked arms with the girl and felt her tense up slightly. She wasn’t big on touching that much was pretty certain, but Lily didn’t really care.  
  
‘With what?’   
  
‘Sirius Black looks like your pet kitten?’ They walked up the stairs together slowly but they didn’t hear a word spoken from either boy before they were out of earshot.  
  
‘Yes. I seem to have tamed him. I quite like it.’ She had on a maniacal face. ‘He’s like my own personal house elf.’   
  
Lily burst out laughing as they reached Adams door. She didn’t know what it was but Adams was in a  _mood_ and it was rather funny. Ali just nodded at Lily with her wide grin like she was having the greatest time in the world.  
  
‘Here I was thinking you’d be going out of your  _mind_  babysitting him, and you’re getting a kick out of it?’  
  
‘The first week  _was_  torture. Oh he kept  _moping_ and _brooding_. I wanted to kick him in the shins.’ She had fury in her eyes, but it died quickly and was replaced with a smile again. ‘Now he seems to just do everything I tell him to. It’s fantastic.’  
  
‘It won’t last. They’ll all kiss and make up.’ Lily warned.  
  
‘Oh I don’t doubt it. Don’t get the wrong idea I’ll be bloody glad when this is all over, but for the time being it’s so  _nice_  not having to chase them around all bloody week and just be able to sit and study. I feel so refreshed.’ She had a goofy smile playing on her lips now and Lily laughed at her happily.  
  
‘I can understand that much.’ With that Lily bid her goodnight and made her way to her own dorm the next flight of stairs up.

*

Downstairs in the common room neither boy had said anything to the other. Sirius was still standing where he had been previously and Remus had his head hung, facing the floor. Sirius didn’t like the empty space between them and decided to make the first move. He crossed the gap and took a seat in the armchair opposite but Remus still didn’t look up.   
  
It took a further five minutes before any of them spoke.   
  
‘I don’t even know where to start…’ Sirius spoke his mind. Remus was still looking at the floor. Sirius took a deep breath, these kind of interactions between boys were never the easiest things to run through.  
  
‘Remus?’ He tried to get his attention and finally Remus lifted his face and pushed his brown hair off his forehead. When Sirius saw how red his eyes were he felt directly responsible.  
  
‘I am  _so_  sorry.’ Sirius dropped his head now. He felt so ashamed. Everything was his own stupid, irrational fault. ‘I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I don’t even know what I was  _thinking_! Fucking  _Snivellus_. He was picking on Pete again and I just, I dunno. I’m not trying to make up excuses… but I wasn’t  _thinking_. I thought it would be funny-’  
  
‘Funny?’ Was the first word Remus spoke as he cut Sirius off. Sirius stopped dead. ‘Funny? It certainly wasn’t funny.’ His words were not harsh, or defensive. They were clearly stating a fact. Sirius looked up at Remus and he had a brow raised.  
  
‘If that’s your idea of funny, mate, we’re really going to have to work on your people skills.’ Remus gave him a small smile and Sirius’s heart lifted.  
  
‘I’ve been hanging around Adams too long. Things are starting to seem backwards and no one will talk to me.’ The two boys laughed weakly at that. Sirius left his armchair and join Remus on his own, taking up a seat on the arm and throwing his arm around Remus’s neck.  
  
‘I really am sorry though, mate. I didn’t mean for it to play out the way it did.’ Sirius could have been a crying puppy he seemed so downtrodden and small in that moment.  
  
‘I know, mate.’ Remus replied, placing a hand on his knee. 


	25. Courtyard wrestling and secrets uncovered

It had been two days since Remus had forgiven Sirius. Remus was a softy, and although the event had caused the most backlash for him, he could never stay mad at his friends. Things were starting to return to normal around the Gryffindor monarchy but James was still fairly livid over the event. As their charms class was finishing Remus peered over to where Sirius was looking overly unhappy sharing a desk with one of the ‘unmentionable’ sixth year Gryffindor girls. The annoying ones that laughed at practically anything he did. Like cough. He really detested these kinds of girls. Poor guy.  
  
Remus had managed to sit with Peter behind Lily and Marlene. Poor Mary had gotten a seat with James and she didn’t seem in the least thrilled. James was less than a ball of fun, still. Remus didn’t want to try and dictate to James to forgive Sirius, because truth was he hadn’t completely forgiven him, himself. He couldn’t stay mad at Sirius, but what he had done still wasn’t right. James just had a much firmer set of morals. It was what led he and Snape to being so at each other’s throats.   
  
On a much simpler subject, Remus was trying to work up the courage to confront Marlene about his childish behaviour of the last two and a half weeks. After his small chat to Lily, and feeling so accepted by yet another one of his peers, he felt his spirits rise. He realised how stupid he’d been to have locked himself away rather than utilize the friends around him that wanted to help. Lily had such a positive soul, she had single-handedly reminded him that when you’re upset you shouldn’t suffer in silence. He was so used to suffering in silence that the concept seemed foreign to him. But he kept her words clear in his head.   
  
‘Lily?’ He managed to grab her after their class ended. James had sulked off with Peter not far behind and Sirius seemed to be doing well at disappearing lately.   
  
‘Hey, what’s up?’ She gave him a bright smile and he felt his whole body warm. Lily was one of a kind.  
  
‘I- I don’t know how to speak to Marlene. I’ve kind of, well-‘  
  
‘Yeah. That.’ She looked up ahead to Mary and Marlene. Marlene was on strike. She didn’t give a shit whether he lived or died. Or so she said. She was actually still furious over being ignored. ‘You need to fix that Remus. But pro tip, apparently she misses your kisses.’ She said this loud enough for the girls to hear.  
  
‘Lily Evans!’ Marlene shouted back when she realized what was going on. Lily rushed ahead to grab Mary and make a run for it. This left Marlene and Remus alone as the rest of the class filed out around them. Marlene’s pretty face could quite literally have speared him on the spot with the daggers she was glaring at him.  
  
‘I wonder if I could- have a word?’ Remus asked politely. Marlene’s expression didn’t change. Finally the last student of their charms class cleared out and they were left alone in the corridor. Thursdays were a lovely day for most of the Gryffindor sixth years as their last period was a free one.   
  
Marlene was still staring. Remus swallowed hard. He surveyed the area for any sharp objects before continuing.  
  
‘Can I- Well, I’m sorry.’  
  
No change. Ignore a girl for two weeks when you’d only been seeing each other for just as long and this is pretty much to be expected.  
  
‘I’ve just been-‘  
  
‘Sulking.’ Marlene cut in. Face still deadpan.  
  
‘Well, uhm. More like-‘  
  
‘Sulking.’  
  
‘Well there is more-‘  
  
‘You’ve been sulking.’  
  
‘Okay, I’ve been sulking.’ Remus threw out a little ticked off. He caught Marlene smirking briefly.  
  
‘It’s okay.’ She turned to him. ‘Well it’s not. I’m not some throw away thing you stupid idiot!’ She made that clear and Remus nodded. ‘But I gathered you and your mates had a bit going on.’  
  
‘I didn’t mean to- you know, ignore you.’  
  
‘Yeah you just didn’t think you were special enough for me or something blah, blah, blah, I’m Remus Lupin I need a baby sitter to tell me when it’s okay to pee.’ She was making all sorts of complimenting hand gestures with these words while finding herself rather funny.   
  
‘Marlene.’ He seethed and she smiled at him.   
  
‘Can you come over here for a second?’ She beckoned him with her finger as Professor Flitwick made his way by and waved to them.  
  
‘What is it?’ Remus asked after the teacher was out of sight. Marlene smiled at him before pushing him back against the stone wall and bringing her lips up to his own. She pressed her body up against his and felt him freeze up a little. It didn’t take long for Remus to relax but he pulled back out of the kiss.  
  
‘I’m sorry.’ He spoke and before she could protest he kissed her sweetly on the forehead and wrapped his arms around her waist. ‘I’m truly very sorry.’ He spoke again kissing her on both cheeks. She scrunched her nose up at that like she was disgusted by the cute display. ‘I won’t be an arse like that again.’ He said finally and gave her one chaste kiss on her lips.  
  
She blushed. It wasn’t something she did often. She gave him a flick on the nose.  
  
‘You better not.’ She said before grabbing his jaw and pulling his face down to her own and kissing him deeply. When she pulled back she looked ready to have an argument. ‘I mean, you can’t go looking all googly-eyed at a girl, have her make the first move, and then leave her hanging. I looked pathetic.’  
  
‘Well I shall make sure it doesn’t happen again. For your social status, if nothing else.’  
  
‘Thank you.’ Marlene nodded and Remus laughed at her. She felt herself smiling against her will. She really was starting to like Remus more than she let on. 

*

  
Not far off, Lily and Mary were walking behind Sirius Black who seemed much less callous and self-righteous than usual when walking very much alone.  
  
‘Poor guy.’ Mary sighed watching the school heartthrob dodge an advancing fifth year Ravenclaw girl. His admirers were taking their chances more liberally since his split from the boys saw many more openings.  
  
‘When is this going to end?’ Lily asked glancing behind them to where James was stamping along with Peter.  
  
‘I don’t know but it needs to. I can’t stand this dark atmosphere hanging around.’ Mary looked back at James and Peter also.  
  
‘Let’s help it along. I’m done with Potter the Fierce.’ Lily smirked and Mary’s eyes went wide. ‘Go get Black and meet us in the west wing courtyard in five.’ She ordered her best friend and Mary nodded, running off ahead and grabbing Sirius by the robes.  
  
Lily turned around and stopped in the middle of the corridor. James’ head was facing down as he stomped one foot in front of the other. He ran straight into her.  
  
‘Watch it!’ He bit out but then realized who it was.  
  
‘You need to learn some manners.’ Lily had her hands on her hips and a smirk on her lips. James looked angry, but not nearly as bad as he had been in previous weeks. His spark was dying out and this was Lily’s chance to pounce.  
  
‘Come on Potty. It’s time to kiss and make up.’ She grabbed him and Peter followed along behind.  
  
‘What the hell has gotten into you?’ James bit out and she smacked him.  
  
‘ _Manners_  Potter.’ Was her reply.  
  
‘What was that about kissing?’ His sly side crept out subduing his new and much angrier one.  
  
‘Oh there’s going to be  _loads_  of it.’ Lily would have been laughing were she not dragging him along to where Mary was probably waiting with Sirius.  
  
‘I- ah- Evans?’ James seemed panicked and she relished in it. She didn’t know how much longer she  _could_  actually stop herself from snogging him (the yelling had put her off for a bit) but for now it wasn’t their time.  
  
‘Oh, there. You’re subject of affection!’ Lily pointed as they came out into the courtyard and Sirius and Mary came into view. James pulled to a stop.  
  
‘Evans, let me go.’ James spoke low but Lily wasn’t easily scared.  
  
‘Nope, you two need to hash things out. We’re all sick of it.’ Lily pulled James forward and pushed him over to Sirius. Sirius’s face was unreadable. He’d clearly had no idea what Mary had planned and wasn’t sure if staying put was the right thing to do.  
  
No one spoke. James was glaring at Sirius and Sirius had on a blank expression that was entirely too attractive to be fair. They weren’t blinking. Lily and Mary looked at each other as Peter came up beside Lily.  
  
‘You know, I really don’t think that was your greatest idea Evans.’ Peter whispered watching the scene.  
  
‘Talk it out boys!’ Lily shouted at them ignoring Peter’s lack of faith in her. But what Lily didn’t know, being a sister and only  _having_  a sister, was that boys didn’t ‘talk it out’.  
  
James threw the first punch and Lily and Mary both screamed in shock of their plan backfiring.   
  
‘ _Told you_.’ Peter sang jumping out of the way as Sirius tackled James to the ground.  
  
‘Oh my god, what do we do?! Get a prefect!’  
  
‘You  _are_  a prefect!’ Mary screamed at Lily as James pinned Sirius down and punched him hard in the face.   
  
‘I am a prefect! Stop it! Stop it both of you! Use your words!’ But it was no use, she couldn’t get anywhere near them. Sirius was grabbing James shirt, James was pushing him back, Sirius landed a punch and James kicked him. They were wrestling like no tomorrow and every blow looked particularly painful.  
  
‘Stop it! Stop it!’ Lily screamed as Mary joined her with Peter. There was a crowd forming around the walls of the courtyard now. ‘Oh shit, what have we done!?’ Lily looked at Mary and she was frantic.  
  
‘We’re going to cop it for this! What do we do!? The two best looking boys in the school aren’t going to be recognisable! The girls are going to have us expelled!’ Mary cried losing herself as James landed another punch and there was a spatter of blood.  
  
‘Calm down, just let them beat each other up.’ Peter shook his head at both of them. He seemed to be getting a bit of a kick out of this. ‘It’s what these moron’s do.’   
  
‘We can’t just  _let_  them break each other’s bones Pettigrew for god’s sake!’ Lily took out her wand remembering she had magic now that the shock had subsided. ‘ _Locomotor Mortis!_ ’ She shouted trying to land the leg-locking curse on one of them. But they were rolling around and chasing after each other too quickly for her to land the curse.  
  
‘Where’s Adams and her bloody perfect aim when you need her?’ Lily cursed and Sirius landed another punch just before James got him into a head lock.  
  
‘STOP THIS INSTANT!’ Came McGonagall’s voice and everyone froze, Sirius in James’ headlock.  
  
Both boys were bleeding from their lips and noses and Lily skidded down and pried Sirius from James grip and McGonagall descended on James and lifted him by his ear.  
  
‘I am disappointed to be your head of house right now!’ She chastised but both the bloodied up boys seemed too out of breath and wounded to care.  
  
‘Miss Evans, escort them both up to the hospital wing, immediately! I would give you both detention but Mister Black seems to have a queue. Instead, fifteen points will be deducted,  _from each of you_. For such a disgusting display of house colours. One more punch thrown and you’ll be sitting in the head master’s office!’ She announced and pushed James over to Lily who caught him by the back of his school robes and held Sirius to her other side.  
  
The boys glared at each other before looking in opposite directions and Lily sighed in between.  
  
The walk to the hospital wing was silent. When she sat them on opposite beds and Madam Pomfrey came out and went to Sirius first he pushed her away.  
  
‘Go to him first.’ He looked down and Lily raised a brow. Madam Pomfrey sighed and made her way over to James and he crossed his arms over his chest.  
  
‘No, that git needs attention more than I do.’  
  
‘Will one of you let me treat you!?’ She shouted in annoyance and Lily started laughing. They were both too proud to admit they were worried about each other. James’ made a face, but got up from his bed, crossed the distance and sat by Sirius.  
  
‘Just treat us at the same stupid time then.’ He spat and folded his arms once again. Lily saw Sirius smile like it was Christmas morning.  
  
‘You’re blushing mate.’ Sirius pointed out and James smacked him hard with a frown but the frown was clearly a cover up for his smirk.  
  
‘Boys…’ Lily shook her head trying to hide her happiness. Things were finally getting back to normal, even if she almost had a heart attack in the process. 

*

After Lily had left them to talk and the boys had been healed and dismissed by the school matron they embarked on their journey back to the common room together. For a few minutes neither of them spoke, but it was James who worked up the nerve first. 

  
‘What the fuck?’ James turned to look at Sirius and it was the only thing he could come up with to say. ‘Honestly Sirius, just what the  _fuck_?’  
  
‘I don’t know.  _I don’t know_.’ Sirius winced. He couldn’t explain it. It was hands down the stupidest thing he had ever done. In his head it had seemed like such a funny plan. His first intention was just the get Snape caught out of bed. That was it. But he couldn’t deny that when the idea of Snape coming face to face with a full transformed Remus hadn’t occurred to him and he was ashamed to admit he had found that to be a rather funny joke also. The repercussions just never occurred to him at all. He never thought anyone would die. He never thought of Remus suffering. He just didn’t  _think_.  
  
James was watching Sirius as they walked and he seemed to be wracked with guilt. His eyes were glossed over and his brow creased so harshly. For a moment James realised that he wasn’t the only one furious over what Sirius had done… Sirius was too.  
  
James stopped just after they clambered behind a tapestry on their way through a corridor. He grabbed Sirius and they stood facing each other for a moment. Sirius hung his head in the intense shame he felt.  
  
‘Listen,’ James cleared his throat, ‘you are a stupid prick. You messed up, and I was about ready to bloody curse you to make you pay for it, but-' He stopped as Sirius looked up at him. He looked so very close to tears, his eyes were watery, but no tears had spilt. This made James’s stomach pang in guilt.  
  
The night he had found Sirius standing on his doorstep, drenched from rain after he had run away from home, Sirius had not shed one tear. He flippantly retold the story, with a few empty laughs about his parents and their actions towards him. James could tell he was glossing over it. He could tell he had left the bad stuff out. Sirius had a cut lip and a bruise forming on his forehead. What happened that night was not worthy of any kind of laughter. And that night saw not one singular tear shed. James watched as Sirius pulled a hand up and wiped one from his eyes as it escaped and James knew then that he had been an idiot.  
  
He hadn’t needed to be so harsh. Sirius was clearly more disappointed in himself than James could ever have been and so he reached out and pulled Sirius into a casual hug.  
  
‘Let’s go back to the dorm and see what Wormy’s up to.’ And with that he pulled his best friend along and they made their way up to the dorms discussing overly trivial things, like the weather and James’s terrible left hook.  
  
Once they entered their dorm, Peter was hesitant with them for all of thirty seconds before he realised things seemed to have gone well after the fight. He joined them on Sirius’s bed and for the rest of the afternoon the boys caught up on things they had missed over the weeks of silence.   
  
By the time six o’clock crept up Sirius felt himself smile slightly. ‘Got to get going soon.’ He said as the three boys surveyed the map where they had been trying to spot couples together.  
  
‘What?’ James looked almost a little upset. He’d only just gotten his best mate back.  
  
‘Yeah. Still have a few more nights of detention.’ Sirius explained.  
  
‘There!’ Peter pointed out and they located two students alone in an unused classroom. The boys chuckled together.  
  
‘But I’ll be back by nine-thirty.’ Sirius smiled at the two as he grabbed his book bag.  
  
‘I thought your detentions ran later? You haven’t been getting in until midnight some nights?’ Peter asked eyeing him off.  
  
‘Uh, yeah. I was trying to make myself scarce. Give everyone room.’ The scene was uncomfortable for about five seconds before James stood up.  
  
‘How is it? What are they making you do?’ James queried. He had been wondering what it was they deemed appropriate for a three week sentence.  
  
‘I’ve just been with Adams every night. She makes me study while she reads.’ Sirius shrugged it off.  
  
‘I suppose that is kind of torture.’ Peter nodded thinking about it.  
  
‘Nah. She’s really loosened up since. She’s actually pretty funny when you’re alone with her.’ Sirius smirked to what he thought was himself, but after a minute of silence James punched him in the arm.  
  
‘You  _like_  her!’ He announced, jaw slack, pointing in bemusement.   
  
‘Nah.’ Sirius smiled at that. James just laughed still pointing.  
  
‘Why are you smiling then?’  
  
‘I don’t  _know_! What are you reading into it for?’ Sirius couldn’t stop smiling. He wanted to smack his head up against a wall. James was doubled over at the sight.  
  
‘Padfoot has a  _crush_. Oh wowee, so cute!’   
  
‘Piss off!’ Sirius tried his best to scrunch up his face and trudged towards the door.   
  
‘Hey maybe she’ll put a book down long enough to snog you!’ Peter called out laughing along with James now.  
  
‘Maybe if you get really good grades she’ll show you her chamber of secrets!’ James shouted as Sirius left the room and he could hear the two of them laughing so hard someone definitely fell off the bed with a loud thud. He would have bet two galleons it was James. He was muttering to himself about stupid shitty friends when he walked right into someone at the portrait exit.  
  
‘Whoa, are you okay Black?’ The familiar voice made him freeze up only very slightly.  
  
When he looked down at the slightly shorter form of Adams he felt lost for words. He’d always found her to be rather attractive. She was a good looking girl. It wasn’t a secret. She had a mixed race parentage from what he heard and mixed race kids were always lottery winners in the gene pool. He stared at her for a moment.  
  
Her large green eyes were framed with heavy set lashes. She had a sprinkle of freckles across her nose. His eyes seemed to linger for a moment too long on her pink lips.  
  
‘ _Shit_!’ He swore aloud and Adams pouted in a quizzical manner.  
  
‘Riiiiiiiight…’ she nodded to him, grabbed his robes, and pushed him through the portrait hole smoothly. ‘I don’t have time for your weirdness today. Hurry up.’ She snapped at him and as he was straightening up on the other side, he turned and watched her as she stepped through the hole in the wall. He felt his heart rate pick up a little as he stared at her bare legs where her high socks finished and her school skirt began.  
  
‘Black?  _Walk_  Black!’ She was shaking her head at him and he secured his book bag on his shoulder a little better and started off down the corridor feeling a bead of sweat trail down his temple.  
  
Sirius Black didn’t  _have_  crushes. Girls had crushes on Sirius Black. He never played into the whole idea of fooling around with women, it was out of character for him. He was a fiercely loyal guy, and he preferred to busy himself with fun with his friends and other such things of importance. He had urgers, sure. It wasn’t like he’d never kissed a girl, far from it. But the girls at Hogwarts practically threw themselves at him, which he found to be a turn off. Although he had indulged here and there. He had some experience under his belt. Mostly from the older grades.   
  
But he’d never  _liked_  a girl before. That all sounded like a lot of trouble that he didn’t  _want_.  
  
While the two students had located their classroom and taken up their usual seats for the detention, Sirius found himself looking over at Adams like he was expecting something out of the ordinary to happen. He stared at Adams as she pulled out her books and settled into her seat. She rested her right cheek on her right fist and sighed. Sirius watched as a few of her curls fell loose from her plait and she brushed them out of her face. He felt his heart rate pick up again. He didn’t know what the bloody hell was wrong with him. He was grinning again like an absolute moron.  
  
Adams went about her study as usual like the perfect student she was. But Sirius seemed to be completely brain dead. He was trying his best to make it look like he was reading, but in actuality he was still watching her. He secured his thumb nail in between his teeth while she used a finger to scan across her page. She was a very fast reader. She seemed to go through a page within seconds. He watched her as she went from left to right, left to right, turned the page and started all over again.   
  
He frowned. Is this what James felt like? It was terrible. You couldn’t keep yourself focused, all you could do was stare. But not just stare, you had to make it look as if you  _weren’t_  staring. But then, she looked up from her book and glanced over at him.  _Busted_.  
  
‘Ew.’ She turned her pretty features up at him and the most disturbing thing was…  _he found it cute._  ‘Get your thumb out of your mouth Black. Gross.’ She shook her head at him and rolled her eyes when he yanked his thumb out of his mouth so quickly he knocked two books onto the floor in the process.  
  
‘Why do people think  _you_  are cool?’ Her face was still upturned into a frown. ‘You’re practically an invalid.’ She came around from her desk and picked up the books for him but Sirius’s voice was still lost to him.  
  
‘You’re not going to do the thing again, are you?’ She enquired looking down on him and he accidentally let his eyes roam further than her face.  
  
‘What thing?’ He asked quickly returning them to her eyes.  
  
‘The annoying thing where you sulk and throw yourself a pity party.’  _This_  is what his brain chose to like?  _This_?  
  
‘Uh, no. No I think I’m right actually. James and I seem to have made up.’ Sirius tried to shrug casually.  
  
‘Forgive me for not singing a chorus on how delighted I am.’ She pushed out in a monotone and Sirius felt himself laugh without warning. She watched him for a moment then retook her seat, returning to her book.  
  
‘Uh, Adams?’ Sirius asked as time ticked on. She replied with a hum. Disgustingly enough he found that cute also. ‘Have you ever, like, dated anyone?’ She stopped what she was doing and narrowed her eyes at him as if waiting for the punch-line of the joke.  
  
‘Why would I do that?’ She seemed very confused and Sirius had to hold back a laugh.  
  
‘Well you know, people tend to do it when they like someone. It has this whole effect of carrying on the human race, I think.’ He pushed out sarcastically, grinning at her and she stared blankly back at him as she usually did. He never could get this prefect to smile.  
  
‘I’m aware of  _why_  people do it. I just don’t see why I, myself, would partake in it? Sounds horribly trivial to me.’ She shrugged and returned her eyes to her book. Sirius slumped down. He should have expected an answer like that. Adams had always been a little off beat. Strange. People called her things behind her back and veered away from her in the corridors. But Sirius never saw it. He found her to be rather funny in her own way. He smiled at her as she studied, then let out a deep sigh and inevitably accepted his fate. James was going to have a field day making up for all the calls he’d made over his undying love for Evans over the years.


	26. Lily's forced confession

James was feeling rejuvenated. Fresh. Younger even. He looked great. He felt great. He was great. Term was three weeks away from finishing and he had blackmail material on Sirius Black. Life was  _fantastic_. He walked back from the prefect’s bathroom with a spring in his step. His long winded fight with Sirius had made him so broody that all he’d had to do was practice quidditch and beat his team into shape. By the time the boys had made up the Gryffindor team was so in shape that they won their last match, placing them first. James Potter had singlehandedly won Gryffindor  _the quidditch house cup_! Well, maybe not  _single_ handedly. But he had to take some of the credit. It was his first year as captain and he was surely doing something right.   
  
‘Wormtail!’ James announced as he entered their dorm after a good, long, morning wash. He smelt of a very many soaps and he had a wide grin on his face.  
  
‘What?’ Peter squeaked jumping from where he was trying to collect some of the chocolate wrappers up from his corner of the room.   
  
‘Are the subjects up?’ He asked looking over to the two middle beds. They were not.  
  
‘Do you really expect me to tackle that on my own? I’m only a small guy Prongs.’ Peter rolled his eyes.  
  
‘Wormtail, you are short, not small.’ James smirked and flounced over to Sirius’s bed. ‘Oh  _Padfoot_!’ James sang jumping on and crawling up to where Sirius was in the foetal position hugging his blankets.  
  
‘He’s going to hit you again.’ Peter smirked watching the scene unfold.  
  
‘Padfoot.’ No reaction. James smirked, ‘Padfoot wake up! Adams is here! Quick she’ll see you in your pants!’ James shouted in urgency. Sirius sat up dazed, confused, and panicked. James and Peter started laughing so hard that Remus threw a chocolate bar in the direction of no one, hoping it would hit one of them.  
  
‘Piss off Prongs!’ Sirius pouted, falling back down on the bed.  
  
‘Oh the days of teasing me about Evans are over Padfoot. A new leaf hath been turned.’ Peter was snickering in the background grabbing things around the room and trying his utmost to tidy up.  
  
‘Piss  _off_  Prongs.’ Sirius repeated. It was the only response he seemed to be able to come up with since the boys stumbled over the secret he hadn’t known he was keeping.   
  
‘Why? Having a good dream about Adams?’ James sat cross-legged, a huge grin on his open mouth. He was having far too much fun with this. How many times had his friends teased  _him_  over the years? They made up a bloody song to sing every time Lily turned him down, he was  _not_  letting this one go.  
  
‘Hey are you aware that Adams and Evan’s sound rather similar, Wormtail?’ James asked his friend like he were the presenter on a children’s television program.   
  
‘By gosh Prongs, you’re right.’ Peter snickered again.   
  
‘Following along in Daddy’s footsteps.’ James said raising a fist up to his lips, seemingly choked up over the whole ordeal. Sirius’s eyes were open now and he was staring up ahead wishing death upon himself. ‘I’m so  _proud_  of you sweetheart.’ James shook his head slowly and fanned a hand before his eyes dramatically.  
  
‘Would you two give it a rest?’ Remus sat up throwing a pillow at James and hitting him so hard he toppled off the bed. ‘What the bloody hell are you talking about  _anyway_?’ Remus barely had his eyes open and his hair was mattered and wild from sleep.  
  
‘Hasn’t Love-Pup told you!?’ James popped back up over the side of Sirius’s bed from the floor but Sirius dived at him shouting ‘no, no, no, no!’ over and over again. They wrestled for a moment before James smacked him hard on the head and got the higher ground.  
  
‘Sirius is in  **love**!’ James shouted with quite possibly the happiest look he’d ever had on his face. ‘You’ve been too busy snogging McKinnon’s to notice. But there has been a new development!’  
  
‘Stop telling everyone I’m in  _love_!’ Sirius was still angry about being woken up, let alone what was going on at present. He was on the cold floor, sick of being the subject of torture for James. He should have known those years taunting the messy-haired boy would come back to haunt him.  
  
‘I don’t even like her!’ Sirius climbed back onto his bed.  
  
‘Denial!’ Peter shouted pointing an accusatory finger. ‘I’ve seen this for  _months_!’   
  
‘Shut up! All of you!’ Sirius snatched up some bits of his uniform and stormed out of the room in his usual morning temper.  
  
‘Months?’ Remus asked looking over at Peter now that Sirius had gone to take a shower.  
  
James got up and ran to the door, ‘Make sure it’s a cold one!’ he shouted at his best friends retreating form. He came back inside sniggering evilly.   
  
‘Is someone going to explain?’ Remus asked wrapping his blankets around himself in his sitting position, making himself into a Remus-burrito. His eyes were still trying to shut themselves against his will.  
  
‘He’s into Adams.’ Peter smirked over at Remus while still tidying up a bit around the room. Remus raised a brow and thought on this for a moment. It didn’t take him long to come to a conclusion.  
  
‘That would explain a lot.’ He felt a laugh surface. ‘But she  _hates_  him!’ Remus felt himself waking up at this as he laughed thinking how that confession would pan out.  
  
‘Love is cruel.’ James clutched a hand to his chest. ‘Speaking of which I need to find someone and discuss a sentence about kissing.’ James leapt up and gave his hair a quick tousle. ‘Wish me luck.’ And after a wink at the remaining two he set off out the dorm door and down the boys’ stairs.  
  
As it was a Sunday there were only a few people up at this point. James stopped at the girls’ staircase and stared at it. He would have to wait for someone to descend and ask them to fetch Lily for him. It was still pretty early for a Sunday. He was amazed both Remus and Sirius were even awake. A few seconds ticked on when a white cat stalked over to his feet and looped himself through James’ legs purring.  
  
‘Snowball?’ James eyes darted up the stairs where the voice had come from and then back down to the cat. He reached down and pulled the cat up into his arms. He was surprisingly relaxed for a cat. He seemed to just melt into James’s hold on him.   
  
‘Hey little guy.’ James had the Persian on his back and ran his fingers through the fur of his tummy. The cat purred away loudly shutting his eyes. His claws latched onto the sleeve of James’ hoodie and James just smiled hearing the cat’s owner call out for him again.  
  
‘Where the hell did you go you crazy- oh.’ Adams stopped at the top of the stairs looking down and registering Snowball in James arms.  
  
‘Morning Adams.’ James continued to stroke the cat. ‘So, you’re a cat person I take it?’ he surveyed her slyly as she came down the steps, watching him closely.  
  
‘I prefer creatures of intelligence. Yes.’ She narrowed her eyes at him warily outstretching her arms for her cat. James handed him over willingly. He’d never realised this cat belonged to her. It was always around the common room, most people liked him. He was a lazy good for nothing and easy to pat.  
  
‘I wouldn’t really call that one intelligent.’ James smirked.   
  
‘You were just scratching him, which is exactly what he wanted.’ Adams provided hitching the cat up against her chest.   
  
‘What about dogs? Do you like dogs?’ James ignored her previous statement, being highly curious for her answer.  
  
Adams gaged James cautiously. James felt like it was Christmas. Should he inform her? No. He couldn’t be that cruel. After all his friends hadn’t done that to him.  
  
‘Dogs are… okay. I suppose.’ She looked as confused as she sounded.  
  
‘Oh well that’s good, at least you don’t hate them.’ James smiled.  
  
‘Is there,’ she looked James up and down, ‘any reason for this subject of discussion? Or am I wasting valuable study time on you?’  
  
James blinked. She certainly didn’t take feelings into account with people.   
  
‘Could you actually do me a favour Adams?’  
  
‘Will it terminate this conversation if I do?’ She raised a quizzical brow.   
  
‘Sure.’ James had to stop himself from laughing. Sirius was right, she was funny. She obviously wasn’t trying to be, but that made it funnier.  
  
‘Then  _ask_.’ She rolled her eyes and hitched the cat up higher on her shoulder and it began clawing the pale pink cardigan she was wearing.   
  
‘Could you fetch Evans for me? I need her on some very important business.’ James asked politely, still trying not to outwardly laugh. Adams stared at him with a questioning look before shrugging and walking back up the stairs slowly. ‘Oh and do you have any plans for tonight Adams?’  
  
She turned around at the top most stair she could still see him, ‘Study Potter. Or have you forgotten? OWLs start tomorrow.’ She rolled her eyes and disappeared up the stairs. While James waited for a moment he looked out around the common room. There were a lot of fifth years and seventh years around pouring over parchments and text books. They were sitting the biggest exams this week. While the rest of the cohort did have them, they weren’t as important as OWL’s and NEWT’s.   
  
A thought struck James just as Lily was making her way down the stairs towards him.  
  
‘Potter? What is it? You haven’t been punching Black again have you?’ Lily asked stopping a few steps from him.  
  
‘Good morning beautiful.’ James turned around and smiled at her. He definitely saw her cheeks flush at that. ‘I’ve had an idea.’  
  
‘Gosh. Alert the masses.’ She narrowed her eyes at him.  
  
‘How about we throw a little party in here tonight? Loosen up the students? Give them all a break from the stress of study? Our Hogsmeade trip  _was_  cancelled this term after all.’ He proposed. Lily studied him for a moment mulling it over.   
  
‘Well, it couldn’t hurt. What do you mean by party?’  
  
‘Oh you know, nothing too extravagant. Boy’s and I will round up some butterbeers and nosh, tell everyone to gather here at six, we’ll just spread a little fun before exams engulf us.’ He put his hands on his hips and looked out around the students.  
  
‘Well… as long as everything clears out by ten thirty, that could be nice.’ Lily contemplated while taking the last few steps to stand beside him. James turned to her and grabbed her into a sidewards hug as they looked out around the common room.  
  
‘We’ll be the heroes of Gryffindor Evans! Oy! You lot!’ James called out unbeknownst to Lily going as red as her hair at his contact. ‘Party in here tonight to let your hair down before exams. Starts at six! Let everyone know yeah?’ All the Gryffindor’s nodded at this. A few had smiles on and a couple clapped.  
  
‘Well I’ll go set things in motion Evans. Don’t worry I’ll take care of everything. You just come down and keep me company tonight, yeah?’ He freed her and she smiled at him knowingly.  
  
‘Who said I’d keep  _you_  company? Maybe I have someone in mind that I’d like to get in a dark corner while things are noisy?’   
  
‘That would be me. I do distinctly remember you telling me that there was going to be loads of kissing happening between the two of us. I mean, your words, not mine Evans.’ He shrugged and she laughed at him.  
  
‘I meant you and Black would be kissing Potter and you know it.’  
  
‘Ah, well. All I’ll have to do is say ‘accio beautiful’ and you’ll come flying to me then.’ James supplied and only just missed Lily’s swing and bounced back a few steps. ‘See you tonight then? Six sharp? Is it a date?’ He called out retreating to the boys’ stairs.  
  
‘In your dreams Potter!’ Lily shouted back before he ran up the stairs smirking to himself.   
  
‘Boys! We need food and a  _lot_  of firewhisky!’ James announced bursting in the room where Remus was pulling his pyjama shirt over his head and Peter was sitting on his bed discussing something with him.  
  
‘What have you done  _now_?’ Remus asked trying to locate some kind of clean clothing before he left for a shower.  
  
‘We’re going to throw the kiddies a party tonight before exams.’  
  
‘Prongs wouldn’t that be a better idea  _after_  exams?’ Peter asked looking between James and Remus from his bed.  
  
‘Nonsense. This is a fantastic idea. Where’s Love-Pup? We need to make a Hogsmeade trip to get some drinks. We could probably snag some more Honeydukes stuff if we take the one-eyed witch passage.’ He looked to Remus at this where he stood still shirtless. There were a lot of silvery scars marring his skin. Remus contemplated it while looking around at the floor.  
  
‘My chocolate supply is getting low.’ He smirked.   
  
‘Excellent! It’s sorted. Moony and I will go then, you let Padfoot know the plans Wormtail.’ James grabbed Remus, located his cloak, and they both darted from the room.

*

  
‘Stop touching him! Stop it! I demand you stop that this  _instant_!’ James shouted drunkenly at Lily and Sirius from where Sirius was sitting between Lily’s legs. Lily was voluntarily running her fingers through Sirius’s hair. On the couch beside them Marlene was sitting happily against Remus who had his arms tightly secured around the pretty blonde.   
  
‘Jealous Potter? I did tell you.’ Lily smirked triumphantly stroking a very calm looking Sirius. His eyes kept darting around the room though.  
  
‘You’re cruel Evans. Clearly his hair needs a lot more attention than Sirius’s.’ Peter spoke from the arm chair across from them that James was standing in front of. They all had drinks in their hands and the common room was exceedingly noisy. The party had only started just over an hour ago now and nearly every Gryffindor had showed up. Word had gotten around incredibly fast that the sixth year boys were providing entertainment.  
  
The boys had gone down to the kitchens and asked the elves for a hand with food, they were only too happy to oblige. There were a large assortment of things but they’d mostly gone untouched. It was the punch bowl that needed constant refilling. James had set a few first years on the task. They weren’t allowed to drink any of course. But they just seemed to be happy to be invited to be a part of the fun.   
  
The chatter around the room was almost like music. Everyone seemed to be happy and having a great time except James.  
  
‘You’re right there Pettigrew.’ Lily nodded. She abandon Sirius’s head in search for her cup. James had been refilling it for her and she was slurring her words more than usual. ‘Come on Potter, let me try and style that mess.’  
  
‘What?’ Remus, Marlene, Sirius and Peter all said in unison.  
  
‘Wait, what?’ James had been about to argue when he registered what she said.  
  
‘Oh shut up, I’m not sucking his face I’m just playing with his hair. Come on.’ She rolled her eyes and pushed Sirius aside. Sirius stood up, jaw dropped in a bemused smile. He gave James a thumbs up.  
  
‘Doesn’t mean you’re a part of the Hogwarts extra curriculum club for students with hair that billows in the wind though.’ Sirius warned and Lily hummed in agreement. James was frozen, eyes wide, staring at Lily where she sat with her legs parted and patting the spot between for him to sit in.  
  
‘Uh-‘ James’ hand darted up to his hair and Lily sighed standing up.  
  
‘Come  **on**  Potter.’ She pulled him down on the “on” and James went bright red looking at Peter and Sirius who had taken up a seat on the arm of Peter’s chair.  
  
‘Carefully Lily. You’ll give him a surprise in his pants.’ Marlene said as she and Remus sniggered.  
  
‘Shut up!’ James shouted but he was immediately silenced when he felt Lily’s fingers pull through his hair.  
  
‘God Potter. Do you own a brush?’ She pulled her fingers through a few times and James felt his skin erupt into goose bumps. He watched as Sirius and Peter laughed at him. He couldn’t see it, but Lily was smirking behind him.  
  
‘N-no.’ James pouted. He didn’t like this at all. Why hadn’t Adams turned up to this? He would have had a lot more fun tormenting Sirius then being the subject of torment like he usually was.  
  
‘Well, I’ll give you this, it’s soft at least.’ She smiled sweetly and continued to scratch his head. James started to relax slightly as he became less of the centre of attention when Mary returned with more drinks for everyone. She took a seat on the floor and smiled over at Marlene who was receiving a kiss on the cheek from Remus.  
  
Marlene winked at Mary.  
  
‘What about something to make this party more interesting?’ James spoke up with a glint in his eye as Lily played with his hair.  
  
‘And what would that be Potter?’ Lily asked pulling his messy hair into two pigtails on his head with her hands. Peter, Sirius, and Mary laughed.  
  
‘Oh, a game of truth or dare?’ James shrugged casually, then settled his eyes on Sirius. Sirius smirked and refused to seem intimidated.  
  
‘I’m game.’ Sirius shrugged pushing Peter aside and getting more comfortable on the armchair with him.   
  
‘I’ll participate.’ Remus spoke up as Marlene repositioned herself against him and kissed him on the lips. As everyone else agreed to it James stared at Sirius.  
  
‘I’ll start. Sirius Black, truth or dare?’  
  
Sirius snorted, ‘dare.’ James gave him a most wicked grin.  
  
‘I dare you-‘ James was cut short though by someone coming down the girls stairs and pulling up short.  
  
‘What the  _hell_  is going on down here!?’ Adams shouted looking around at everyone. There were groups all around the common room. There were people sloshing drinks at each other, some snogging in corners. There were people sitting on top of other people. There were streamers hanging all around in red and gold pride. There were first years drinking, there was a large pile of stolen food in the corner. Adams looked about ready to explode.  
  
‘How did she not know this was happening?’ Lily asked still happily running her fingers through James’ hair.  
  
‘God, no one told her.’ Sirius sighed, ‘She’s going to have a coronary.’ He watched as Adams marched over to a first year slugging back a cup of punch and ripped it from him. She took one sniff and started shouting at him.  
  
‘Better go forth Love-Pup, save her from herself.’ James smirked at Sirius and Sirius looked away defiantly.   
  
‘I’m not going anywhere near her. She’ll think this was all my doing.’ Sirius shook his head and kept his backside firmly planted on his part of the armchair.  
  
‘Coward.’ Remus rolled his eyes and moved Marlene off him, getting up and walking over to where Adams was now shouting at four first years.  
  
‘Anyway.’ James looked back at Sirius. ‘I dare you-‘ he thought on it for a moment before narrowing his eyes ‘-to get Adams drunk.’   
  
Sirius snorted. ‘Come on Prongs I have a better chance of making babies with the giant squid.’   
  
‘Don’t tease Adams.’ Lily smacked James where he sat. They all looked over at where she seemed beside herself and Remus was trying to calm her down.  
  
‘I’m not going to drug her, I refuse.’ Sirius spoke with finality.   
  
‘Fine, then you have to answer a truth question.’   
  
‘Fine.’ Sirius responded trying to look tough.  
  
‘Are you, or are you not, in love with-‘ James stopped knowing he would do better to keep Sirius’s crush between the four boys for now, ‘my mum?’ He finished and Sirius smirked.  
  
‘Secrets out. I think she’s in to me too if we’re being honest.’ Sirius shrugged and they both laughed.  
  
‘Dad’ll be crushed.’ James settled himself back into Lily better and he thought he felt her tense up a little at the mention of his parents. He ignored it and enjoyed her fingers caress while it lasted.   
  
‘Evans!’ Sirius shouted and both she and Marlene sat up straighter on the couch. ‘Truth or dare?’ Sirius smiled now knowing he had to thank James for not being a total prat. Had the situation been reversed, he probably would have.  
  
‘Uh, dare.’ Lily decided. Sirius barked out a laugh and settled his sights on her.  
  
‘I dare you to stand up on the table here and announce to the party, as loud as you can, that James Potter has the world’s most perfect backside.’ James started to laugh so hard that Lily hit him.  
  
‘I’m not bloody doing that.’  
  
‘Why? It’s true. Would you like to feel it so you can be certain?’ James asked and Lily pushed him out from between her legs and then kicked him for good measure.  
  
‘Would you prefer truth then?’ The look on Sirius’s face made Lily cringe. She certainly wouldn’t have gotten off easy as the difference between muggle's playing this game and playing it at Hogwarts was that truths could be dangerous if chosen among wizards. She sighed and stood up.  
  
‘Fine!’ She jumped up on the table and looked around at everyone. She was silently cursing.  
  
‘Get on with it!’ Marlene laughed.  
  
‘ATTENTION!’ Lily called out and a fair amount of the conversations around the room froze and everyone looked at her. She took in a deep breath. ‘I WOULD JUST LIKE TO ANNOUNCE THAT JAMES POTTER HAS AN INCREDIBLY LOVELY BACKSIDE! THAT IS ALL!’ She looked down at Sirius as the room erupted into laughter and applause.   
  
As the night progressed the students got increasingly drunker. Adams seemed to take it upon herself to supervise and she was running around grabbing drinks off first and second years and shouting at people defacing property and helping those vomiting to toilets. Remus, who was a loud drunk, was carted off by Marlene just minutes previously when he started yelling a song very much out of tune and they disappeared up to the boy’s dorm. Mary and Lily were having a very heated conversation with Peter and James about ministry politics and things being done about the war and hadn’t noticed they’d gone missing.  
  
Sirius found himself looking over at Adams more and more with every drink he consumed. He was trying his best not to get too drunk as he was known to get pretty out of control once he passed a certain point. He wasn’t overly fond of drinking, but he did enjoy the effect it had on the people around him. Everyone got very funny and laughed at practically anything. And Sirius’s favourite thing in this world was laughter. He took a deep breath in, looking over at Adams once more and realised he could make anyone in this common room laugh  _easily_. Everyone except the fifth year prefect.  
  
He glared over at her when he saw her counterpart prefect approach. Dirk Cresswell spoke to her for all of five seconds before Sirius deemed it unacceptable.  
  
‘Scuse me fer a sec.’ Sirius supplied to the group and stood, making his way over to Adams and Cresswell.   
  
‘Adams I-‘ Sirius got out before his foot caught a rouge cup on the floor and he slipped forward and came crashing down before the two fifth years. When he looked up at them they were both staring down at him wide eyed. Cresswell’s eyes moved to Adams and so did Sirius’s.   
  
For a moment there was silence but then Adams started to laugh. It was a short and decidedly evil laugh. She stepped over Sirius and completely ignored Cresswell even though he clearly hadn’t finished what he was saying.   
  
‘Stop that!’ She shouted at a student using a quill to write on a table. Sirius couldn’t have cared less that he’d just completely made a fool of himself, he had an airy smile on his face over the prefect’s laughter. He liked it, even if it was at his expense, evil tone and all. 


	27. Sirius Black, mastermind matchmaker

Sirius had a plan. It was perfect. He hadn’t been given a break by his best friend in weeks now. The calls about his failing love life were humiliating. He hated it. But he also knew his plan would work in getting James and Lily together and if James had Lily to occupy him, perhaps he would catch a break. Even if exams over the last two week had gone by without a hitch. Well, besides the first Monday exams. Most of the Gryffindor’s had rather bad hangovers that day. But besides that, their exams were passed, and in Sirius’s case he knew with flying colours. He’d spent more time than ever before studying in his detentions with Adams. Had he been sitting his NEWT’s he’d have been begged to join the ministry as an Auror. He was sure of it.  
  
As he made his way to the headmaster’s office to speak with Dumbledore he had a grin on his face. Whether or not Dumbledore would agree to the plan was uncertain. He had been extremely angry with him for his indiscretion with Snape, but that was over a month ago now. The only person still harbouring any feelings for that had to be Sirius himself. He would still swear at himself from time to time for his beyond careless actions. But his friends had forgiven him so he had to try to forgive himself.  
  
He stopped before the gargoyle and smiled. ‘Fudge Flies.’ He spoke the password and the gargoyle jumped aside, revealing the staircase Sirius knew all too well. As he made his way to the top, he knocked on the door and waited for a reply.  
  
‘Come in.’ He heard Dumbledore’s muffled reply. When he opened the door Sirius stopped at the portraits to smile at his great, great grandfather.  
  
‘Top of the morning to you granpappy.’ Sirius tipped an invisible hat at Phineas’s portrait. The cleaver looking wizard turned his face up at him.  
  
‘You’re a disgrace to the name Black.’  Phineas spat and disappeared from his portrait. Sirius rolled his eyes and headed further into the office. He smiled over at Dumbledore who was standing by his desk, stroking his phoenix quietly.   
  
‘To what do I owe the pleasure Sirius?’ Dumbledore asked as Sirius made his way up the steps to the headmaster’s desk.   
  
‘Well, I’ve sort of come for two reasons.’ Sirius explained and Dumbledore surveyed him as fawkes nuzzled into his hand.  
  
‘Do go on.’ Dumbledore motioned for him to take a seat. Sirius complied.  
  
‘Well Albus, firstly I wanted to make a formal apology for my  _serious_  screw up.’ He smiled at his own play on words and Dumbledore didn’t miss it.  
  
‘Do you feel your punishment made you contemplate why we judged what you had done as such a  _serious_  offence?’ Dumbledore also smiled. Sirius tried his best not to laugh. This was a serious matter. Seriously.  
  
‘I do. I honestly do.’ Sirius became a little sobered as he thought on it. Dumbledore left fawkes and took a seat in his chair.  
  
‘Then as long as you take more caution in your actions Sirius, I do believe you are forgiven.’  
  
‘Thanks Professor.’ He replied quaintly and for a moment there was a very pregnant pause. ‘Secondly!’ He pepped up at this. ‘Are you still interested in a plan to get Evans and James together?’   
  
‘I would of course help in any way I can. Young love is a thing of beauty.’ Dumbledore nodded with a smirk.  
  
‘What would you say to making Evans Head Girl next year then?’ Sirius was smiling wickedly.  
  
‘I was already entertaining the idea.’ Dumbledore agreed with a nod.  
  
‘Then how about, and hear me out now, how about James Potter for Head Boy? I mean, I know he’s had some transgressions in the past, but he’s definitely turned over a new leaf. Look, he’s gotten  _far_  less detentions than I have this year. And he won Gryffindor the quidditch cup! I think he’d be fantastic at it. He’s a born leader. He got ten OWL’s. And there would be so much  _alone_  time for the Head Boy and Girl.’ Sirius winked at Dumbledore and Dumbledore chuckled.  
  
‘Well, James isn’t even a prefect Sirius. I had been contemplating Remus. But, I do believe he may find it hard to tackle much more than he already does.’ Dumbledore steepled his fingers together and rested his chin lightly atop them in thought. ‘I suppose, not every Head boy and girl have been prefects in the past.’ Dumbledore lowered one hand and left one finger on his chin. Or, Sirius thought it must have been his chin. It was so covered in silver he couldn’t be sure.  
  
‘I’ll think about it, how about that?’ Dumbledore smiled over his spectacles at Sirius and Sirius jumped up.  
  
‘Perfect! Thanks Albus!’ He shouted running from the room. That was as good as a yes. Once he had left his head masters office and was just to the bottom of the stairs someone called out to him.  
  
‘Sirius.’ It was a voice he hadn’t heard in months. He turned to see his brother standing at the bottom of the stairs, not far off.  
  
‘Hey.’ Sirius watched as his brother approached. He wasn’t sure what to say. They’d barely spoken since he and their parents had their falling out. Of course Regulus would have to take their side. Sirius didn’t really hold it against him even if he thought his brother was a bit of a moron.  
  
‘Um.’ Regulus looked upset. Sirius reacted immediately.  
  
‘What is it? Are you okay?’ He swooped down on his brother and checked for injuries and Regulus pushed him away sighing.  
  
‘I’m fine you idiot. I just, I have bad news.’ Regulus was clutching a letter in his hand and Sirius frowned.  
  
‘How did you know I was here?’  
  
‘I didn’t. I was going to the headmaster to get him to summon you. Mum and Dad don’t want you knowing, but I didn’t think that was right.’ Regulus let his head fall.  
  
‘What’s going on? Will you get on with it!?’ Sirius’s patients were running out and he was starting to fret.  
  
‘It’s uncle Alphard. He- He passed away last night.’ Regulus looked up at him solemnly. Usually the brothers were a distant pair, but in that moment Regulus inched closer to his brother and placed a hand on his shoulder.  
  
‘I’m sorry. I know you two were close.’   
  
Sirius felt himself go ridged, ‘That bastard Phineas. I was right there and he wasn’t even going to tell me.’  
  
‘Well,’ Regulus started but Sirius reached up and covered Regulus’s hand with his own.  
  
‘How have you been anyway? Are they treating you okay?’ Sirius asked looking into his little brother’s cool face.  
  
‘They treat me fine.’ Regulus shrugged. ‘Kreacher and I keep out of trouble together, unlike you.’ The look Regulus gave him would have been interrupted as a glare by most, but Sirius knew his brother well enough to know that he was smirking somewhat.   
  
‘Stay safe brother.’ Sirius gave him a half-hearted smile which Regulus didn’t return. He nodded to him and turned off in the direction he’d come moments before. Sirius was left alone in the corridor and the happiness he’d felt moments ago was all but gone. His uncle had died. He was gone. Sirius hadn’t seen him in months, probably coming close to a year now. And now he would never see him again.  
  
He took a deep breath in and started his journey back to the Gryffindor common room. His uncle Alphard had always been kind to him. Even after he was sorted into Gryffindor and had apparently brought shame down on the noble and most ancient house of black. He found Sirius’s curiosity about the world funny. Sirius always liked it when he came to visit because when Sirius would ask questions, the answer didn’t always boil down to some form of ‘because Sirius’.  
  
Now he was gone. Sirius felt a pang in his chest and he stopped in the corridor he’d gotten to and leant against a wall for a time. He felt a tear escape and fall down his cheek but he wiped it away as quickly as it came and started his foot falls again. When he reached the fat lady and climbed into the common room he made his way up to the dorm. Once he got to the door he could hear James and Peter shouting merrily inside and he stopped before his hand reached the door knob. He wasn’t quite ready to pretend he was happy and unfazed yet.   
  
He made his way back down the stairs and into the common room. There were a lot of students around as exams were now over and term was coming to a close. Sirius found a chair alone and slumped down into it and looked up to the window at the dark sky outside. A fluffy white tail whipped up and he noticed the cat flopped on the window sill.   
  
Sirius smiled at it. He’d always been an animal person. They were loyal creatures, he felt connected to them. The cat surveyed him for a moment. Sirius wasn’t sure whether he was making a face or that just  _was_  his face. The cat didn’t seem to disapprove of the addition to his area and turned back around and made himself comfortable again. Sirius was happy for the tranquil company. He sat staring out the window for a long time as it got darker and darker and began to rain.   
  
He thought of his uncle and in turn began thinking of his family. That’s when he started to get mad. How could his mother and father forbid his brother from telling him  _his uncle died_? He knew they hated him, but that was extreme. He thought of his mother screaming at him the last time he saw her. The way her face contorted into horrible flares of anger and rage. She’d thrown fine china at him at dinner and carried on when Sirius decided he’d had enough and told her what he really thought.   
  
He thought of his father’s booming voice as he struck him for talking back to his mother. Sirius Black, the shame of the family. How dare he stray from their pure-blood ways? How dare he think for himself? How  _dare_  he? Sirius huffed in anger as he began to brood. His eyebrows furrowed and his chest felt empty. His anger was passing into dark fury now and his fist balled up where they rested on his knees. He wanted to march back to the headmaster’s office and scream at the portrait of his great-great grandfather. Maybe he would pass the message on to his good for nothing parents.   
  
He didn’t even notice someone saying his name until they shouted at him.  
  
‘Black!?’   
  
‘ **What**?!’ He threw out practically dripping with contempt. When he looked up Adams was staring at him wide-eyed and shocked.  
  
‘Honestly. I’m just trying to get my cat.’ She frowned at him pointing to where the cat was now on all fours. When she navigated around him and reached out to the white fur-ball, it jumped into her arms and hissed at Sirius. Sirius noticed she was in her school robes. She looked worn out. She’d probably just finished rounds and he’d gone and yelled at her.  
  
‘Take  _care_.’ She threw back and turned around and left.  
  
‘ _Shit_!’ Sirius dropped his head into his hands and grabbed fistful’s of hair. Now he was upset, angry,  _and_  an idiot. He looked up and glimpsed Adams retreating form as she disappeared up the stairs. Her hair was out today and the long curls swung back and forth in her wake. Sirius sighed. That was not a subject he wanted to touch, and it didn’t look like he had any kind of chance anyway.   
  
He perused his memories pertaining the prefect and most of them rang the same. She hated him. This only served to make him angrier. He punched the armchair.  
  
‘Hey, there you are.’ James voice came floating towards him and when he looked up James sat down beside him. ‘You alright? You’ve been gone for ages. I know you said you had a plot forming, but you weren’t answering your mirror.’  
  
‘I screw up everything.’ Sirius swore looking away from him, out the window.  
  
‘Ah, how so?’ James settled in knowing his calming effects on his best friend were most likely needed at present.  
  
‘I just bloody yelled at her. I screwed up with Remus and Snape. I screwed up looking after my brother. I just screw up everything up.’ Sirius pouted.  
  
‘Uh, yes. You did screw up with Remus and Snivellus.’ James agreed. ‘But let’s not rehash that right now. What about your brother?’  
  
‘I don’t know. I just feel like a bit of a failure as a big brother. I probably should have stuck around and looked out for him. He’s an idiot. My parents will fill his head with loads of blood purity crap and he’ll buy straight into it. I should have lasted a little longer, tried to get him out.’ Sirius heaved a sigh. He felt James place a hand on his shoulder the same way Regulus had.  
  
‘Your brother  _is_  an idiot. But his path is his own Sirius. I don’t think you staying there would have served much good, he would have just had to watch while your mum and dad tormented you day in and day out. As much of a little snot bag that he is, I don’t think he enjoyed seeing that. He’s still your brother after all. The two of you grew up together. Deep down you love each other.’ James ruffled up his hair. ‘What’s brought all this on though?’  
  
‘Just-‘ he contemplated for a second telling James about his uncle, but decided against it. He didn’t want to push his gloomy attitude on his best friend the same way he just had to Adams. ‘Just ran into him coming back from seeing Dumbledore.’  
  
‘You went to see Dumbledore? What for?’ James asked and Sirius turned his attention to him.   
  
‘Stuff.’ Sirius smirked.   
  
‘Oo, I like stuff. Can I be included on stuff?’ James gave him a huge smile and Sirius felt his anger melting away. He still had a sharp pain in his chest over his uncle, but he thought his uncle must have been happy about him giving his parents the equivalent of the middle finger. He would have been proud.   
  
‘Nah, it’s no stags allowed.’ Sirius stood up and James groaned copying him.  
  
‘Just because I have hooves, doesn’t mean you can leave me out of plans with the headmaster Padfoot. Or should I call you  _Puddifoot?_ Seeing as you’re all about the romance these days you handsome devil.’ James laughed following Sirius up the stairs as he groaned.  
  
‘Leave it alone Prongs!’  
  
‘Sirius Onion Black. I will do no such thing.’ Both the boys cracked up at the play on Sirius’s father’s name. After they made it up to the dormitory Sirius felt a pang of guilt over finding time to laugh while he should have been mourning his uncle. There were so many things he should have been doing. He should have been mourning. He should have been attempting to save his brother. He should have made more of a stand against his extremist parents. He should have been trying to find out a way he could have been helping in the war raging outside the confines of the school. He should have apologised to Remus better. He should have apologised to Adams for yelling at her unmerited.   
  
He wasn’t having a very good term. As it drew to a close now he hoped for a fresh start as a seventh year. Next year held a lot of promise. If Dumbledore took his bait and made James Head Boy he was sure to charm Lily and finally get the girl. Maybe he could have a chance at getting the girl himself? He thought on it for a moment. What did one do to secure a girl? What did you do to get a girl that wasn’t throwing herself at you? It had always been very easy for Sirius. He was told he was charming. But apparently with the girl that finally caught his attention enough for him to  _want_  to peruse her, charm was not an option. She seemed to find him repugnant.   
  
As he sat in his dormitory with James, Remus and Peter, they started mulling over the idea of an end of term prank for the farewell feast. That’s when Sirius snapped out of his own mind.  
  
‘ _No!_ ’ He shouted at James as they began discussing something extravagant enough to make Dumbledore laugh.   
  
‘What?’ Peter stared at him incredulously.   
  
‘I- just, no. Well think about it guys, we’re to be in our final year next year.’ Sirius argued. Peter and James looked at him liked he’d just smacked a puppy in front of them. Remus was grinning.  
  
‘Are you trying to put yourself on the straight and narrow to impress someone?’ Remus gave him a sly look. James shouted out and pointed at him.  
  
‘Love-Pup makes a grand return!’   
  
‘Oh Adams, you’re so smart and look at how well you follow  _rules_.’ Peter announced, flipping non-existent hair from his face with an adopted haughty expression.   
  
‘Oh Adams. Break  _my_  rules.’ James started rolling around on his bed touching himself.  
  
Sirius’s eye started twitching. He was never going to live this down. Never.   
  
The rest of the term ticked by without a hitch. At the farewell feast, Gryffindor had rejoiced as for the first time since the boys had started at Hogwarts, Gryffindor had narrowly won the house cup! The following morning when they were getting on the train for London James had even plucked up the courage to ask Lily for her home address. “So I can send you any pickup lines I think of over the summer.” He told her. Lily rolled her eyes but wrote it down for him regardless and on the train ride home the four boys shared a carriage together for the most part. Remus had had to do a few rounds as a prefect, and had gone off to sit with Marlene for a while, but he joined them before they arrived on the platform. They made plans to meet up as often as they could and when they arrived at platform nine and three quarters, Mr and Mrs Potter were waving happily waiting for James and Sirius.   
  
As they convened and Mrs Potter started making a fuss over James’s hair, Sirius saw Adams get off the train and a small boy attach to her leg. He watched her with a smile as she scooped the boy up and swung him around before she and her parents left through the barrier.   
  
‘Come on Sirius. I’m making us a wonderful dinner tonight.’ Mrs Potter announced ushering him into her side as she hugged him close. ‘I finally have my boys back. I want you to tell me everything!’ Sirius couldn’t help but smile.


	28. Crazy Anne Adams

Aaliyah ran down the stairs to her mother’s calls, chasing behind her little brother. His laughter was one of her favourite things in this world. She scooped him up just as they entered the kitchen and started tickling him furiously on the kitchen table.  
  
‘Not on the table you two!’ Kanika sighed as her husband made no move whatsoever to stop his children from breaking the breakfast china.  
  
‘Stop! I can’t breathe! I’m going to  _die_!’ Tucker screamed dramatically as his sister relented and picked him up, hugging his much smaller form into her own.  
  
‘You’re getting so  _big_  Tucker! You’ll be taller than Mum soon.’ Ali joked with a sideways glance at Kanika who stopped scorching the bacon with her wands and turned to them.  
  
No one spoke for a solid thirty seconds.  
  
‘Nah, he’s already taller than her isn’t he?’ Christian spoke from behind his copy of the daily prophet and Tucker and Ali burst into laughter. Christian was rewarded with a sliver of bacon flung at him. It hit the paper and he chuckled happily making no attempt at picking it up.  
  
‘Yah-yah! Yah-yah! Will you teach me how to fly?’ Tucker asked as Ali placed him in the seat beside her at the breakfast table.  
  
‘Ah, I’m kind of rubbish at it myself, Tuck. Maybe Dad can?’ Ali made a face. Her one downfall as a witch, broomsticks.  
  
‘I can’t believe you got  _twelve_ OWLs.’ Kanika shook her head placing more bits and pieces of breakfast food down before them. Ali started to help Tucker first.  
  
‘Yeah. But I’m disappointed about the ones that I didn’t get top of the class in.’ Ali sighed. She thought she had done so well with her studies. Her last weeks weren’t even interrupted by the usual riffraff. How could she have let herself slip? To be fair it was divinations, astronomy, and transfigurations she had received less than O’s in. One she actively disliked, and the other two weren’t her strong suits.   
  
‘Don’t be ridiculous Aaliyah. I’ve never heard of anyone getting such amazing results! You’ll be able to do whatever you want if you keep this up. Oh I’m so proud of you!’ She came around and planted a kiss on her head.  
  
‘I think I might drop divinations, that way I can focus more on transfigurations and astronomy. Want to make sure my NEWTs are all perfect.’ Christian had placed his paper down and was now stifling a laugh. Ali turned to her brother who was imitating her with overdone hand gestures and she poked him hard in the side.   
  
‘Isn’t that one of the classes you take with Misha? How are Misha and Nay?’ Kanika asked now taking a seat at the table herself.  
  
‘Yeah, but it’s so wishy-washy. There’s no way to study it properly. I still have charms with Misha at least and most of my classes with Nay.’ Aaliyah shrugged. She entertained her parents with the idea that she and her two cousins spent loads of time together, but the school year just passed saw her spending less and less time in either of their company.   
  
‘Hey Tuck, want to go swimming today?’ Ali spun around to her little brother who jumped up on his seat and began cheering.  
  
‘Yay! Yay! Can we please?’  
  
‘Eat your breakfast first! I don’t have a shift until tonight, so I can come with you.’ Kanika beamed at them and both her children rejoiced at that. Christian groaned.  
  
‘Why do  _I_  have to go to work? Can I call in sick? Can we have a family day?’ Christian pouted and Kanika shook her head at him.  
  
‘Stop being a five year old Chris, you have to go to work.’ Kanika chastised and all three of the other occupants of the table groaned in unison.   
  
By the time Christian had his dress robes perfectly adjusted and had apparated off to work, Tucker had finished most of his breakfast and was running up the stairs to where Aaliyah had gone to change.  
  
‘Yah-yah! When we get back can we do a fashion parade?’ Tucker asked bursting into her room. Ali was tying up her bikini top and nodded to him. He made his way inside the room and flopped down on the fluffy shagpile rug and looked around. Ali wouldn’t have dared let anyone but her brother and parents into her room. It was highly embarrassing. Mostly it just contained books. Her father and mother had bought her two large book shelves to house her collection when they realised after her first year at Hogwarts she had become rather obsessed with them.   
  
But that didn’t explain a few of the other things around the room. Like her vast collection of teddy bears. There was a certain brand of them that she loved as they were softer than anything she’d ever felt, including snowball. Her parents bought her a new one every birthday and Christmas. It was a very secret shame. She had a name for every single one.   
  
The pictures on the wall weren’t the usual posters of a teenage girl either. Where most girls would have had up bands or handsome wizards, Aaliyah’s walls had a few notable wizards and witches of the ages. There were more than one of Phillip Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, better known as Paracelsus. He was someone Ali looked up to very much for his work with Alchemy and in turn revolutionising work within medicine and healing.   
  
There were also some here and there of Ignatia Wildsmith, who created Floo Powder. Falco Aesalon, the first recorded animagus. Dzou Yen, another notable alchemist. There were more clever looking wizards than she cared to admit to, all moving in and out of each other’s pictures having intelligent conversations with one another.   
  
‘Sure I don’t see why not.’ Aaliyah answered her brother throwing an oversized shirt on over her two piece bathing suit. ‘Come on, we’ll get you changed and ready.’ She scooped Tucker up and balanced him on her hip and made her way out of the room and off to his down the long silent corridor. Snowball, who was bored, was hot on their trail.  
  
Once Tucker was changed and they’d located towels they raced to their parents’ bedroom and Tucker flung open the door and dived inside, jumping all over the freshly made bed.  
  
‘What are you doing!?’ Kanika came around out of her bathroom and watched as her son jumped up and down shouting happily on her large bed.  
  
‘Jumping.’ Tucker replied easily.  
  
‘Stop jumping!’ Kanika stomped her foot as Ali sat down on the bed with a smirk.  
  
‘Why?’ Tucker continued.  
  
‘Because I said so!’ Kanika stomped again. Tucker stopped. He stared at her for a moment, then began jumping again.  
  
‘Why?’ He asked again and Kanika huffed and Ali snickered at her little brother’s cheek. She wasn’t sure why but she found everything he did terribly endearing and rather funny even though she knew had he been anyone else’s little brother, she probably would have told him off long ago.   
  
Once the three were ready to go they made their way out of the large old house and off to the beach on foot. It wasn’t more than a five minute walk from them. After they arrived, Ali and Tucker ran into the waves together as Kanika set up their towels and watched them happily. The siblings chased each other around, Ali keeping an extra keen eye on Tucker when he got any deeper than his knees.   
  
Hours ticked by in the sun and neither of them tired of the waves. Kanika joined them and then they went on an expedition over to a reef close by and picked up pretty shells and watched as crabs ventured from one rock pool to the next. They spotted a bright coloured starfish and admired it for quite some time. It wasn’t until Tucker started complaining of hunger that they made their way back, well into the afternoon.   
  
‘Stop! Get back here and let me clean you! You’ll trail sand into the house!’ Kanika screeched after Tucker as he dodged her and ran inside, going straight for the kitchen. Ali just laughed as her mother sighed and used her wand to clean her feet and legs of sand. Ali waited for her to do the same to her own feet before making her way in. Snowball was in the kitchen sitting by Tucker when they came inside.  
  
Their mother made them all sandwiches and cleaned off her son before she let him sit at the table. The rest of the afternoon saw Tucker raiding Ali’s wardrobe and picking out different sorts of outfits for the both of them to wear. Tucker enjoyed clothing more than anything else.   
  
Ali was laying on her stomach on her rug in front of Tucker sometime after the fashion parade, doing his make up at his request. She applied eye shadows and lipsticks and mascaras and rouge. Tucker was holding perfectly still. When Christian arrived home from work and came in to find them he chuckled happily and joined them on the floor asking to be next. Ali complied happily.   
  
When Kanika found them, dressed in her uniform for work, she just rolled her eyes and sighed at sight.   
  
‘Honestly Christian. You do remember Albus is coming by tonight, what will he say?’  
  
‘I think he’ll probably ask to join in.’ Christian beamed looking at his reflection in Ali’s mirror. He turned around and gave them all an incredibly cheesey grin and even Kanika couldn’t help but laugh. She gave him a kiss on the lips and then touched a kiss to both her children’s foreheads before bidding them farewell and apparating off to the connection points between their home and St. Mungo’s. It was much too far a distance to do all in one go.   
  
‘Professor Dumbledore is coming around tonight?’ Ali asked as Tucker climbed onto her back and lay back on her like a deck chair.  
  
‘Mm, few things to discuss.’ Christian yawned, relaxing on the rug with his children.   
  
‘Order things?’ Ali asked surveying him out of the corner of her eye. She had not forgotten her parent’s involvement in the secret society. Christian supplied her with the exact same calculating look right back. They both sat in silence for a moment before he replied.  
  
‘Order things.’ He spoke with a nod and began to make snow angels in the rug. Tucker laughed and rolled off his sister and joined his father, giggling wildly when Ali began tickling him. There was a loud crack downstairs signalling the arrival of someone and Christian stood up, forgetting about his face.  
  
Tucker yawned and Ali picked him up and put him down on her bed. She located Snowball and put him beside Tucker as he nodded off wrapped in her blankets. Ali followed her father downstairs and Dumbledore sat in their kitchen smiling happily.  
  
‘Morning.’ Dumbledore waved over at them.  
  
‘Night here.’ Christian corrected him.   
  
‘But it is morning somewhere.’ Dumbledore smiled, and watched Christian as he crossed the distance to where he could begin making some tea. Living half way across the world never made the Adams any less British.   
  
‘I rather like your new look Christian. Is it something of a trend over here?’ Aaliyah could see in Dumbledore’s eyes that he was certainly smiling. Almost smirking. She laughed at her father as he turned around and touched his face.  
  
‘Ah yes, Tucker has taken a fancy to it, so I had to give it a go myself. Do I look dashing?’ Christian grinned, clicking tea cups and teaspoons around.  
  
‘Nothing has ever suited you more. How are you Aaliyah?’ He turned to her as she took a seat across from him.  
  
‘Great. Glad to be home.’ She beamed.   
  
‘Heard about your grades. Exceptionally impressive.’ He gave her a curt little nod.   
  
‘Looks like we’ll have a Head Girl in the family!’ Christian announced proudly placing cups of tea down in front of them and using his wand to clear his face.  
  
‘So it would seem.’   
  
‘What about this year’s Heads? Have you chosen them yet Professor?’ Aaliyah asked looking back at him after blowing carefully on her tea.  
  
‘I have someone in mind for both positions.’ He was definitely smirking now. ‘I’ve brought along a custard-tart, Christian. Found myself in the kitchens and when I saw it, I couldn’t have very well left it to go mouldy.’ With a click of his fingers the tart appeared before them along with plates and forks. Ali laughed happily as Christian agreed that it did indeed look fit for eating.   
  
‘There are a few matters I must go over with you,’ as Dumbledore spoke this, he glanced at Aaliyah.   
  
‘Oh please, sir. I know about the Order. I wonder if I could stay? I’d really love to know more about it?’ She asked, putting on her best mature face. Dumbledore only looked to Christian.  
  
‘I have no qualms with those wanting to fight, being given the chance to do so.’   
  
Christian looked a little torn. He thought on it for a moment before his answer came.  
  
‘Just- don’t tell your mother.’ Dumbledore chuckled but began the discussion nonetheless. Ali sat quietly, knowing her place as her father and head master spoke of things that mostly she didn’t understand. There was a lot of talk about gathering information. Dumbledore spoke in riddles of trips he had been making to Albania, spots that Voldemort had been. He had the idea that Voldemort was planning something big. There was a lot that simply went over her head, but from time to time Dumbledore would smile over at her as she sipped her tea.   
  
The main thing she learnt was that her father was very much a part of this organization, more so than her mother. His influence at the ministry, that Aaliyah wasn’t aware he had, seemed to crop up a lot in their talk.  _Mention this to the minister, make it look like he’s the one that stumbled upon it_. Dumbledore was crafty. And Christian was very compliant. The conversation seemed to be coming to an end however. But it wasn’t until they heard the door creak and Tucker’s very sleepy form joined them that Ali decided it would be best for her to retreat. She thanked them both and took Tucker upstairs to clean his face.   
  
He protested to sleeping in his own bed and so she took him back to her own where she changed into her pyjamas and got into bed with her brother. He rested up against her while she took out a book and turned down the lamps. As she reread her copy of  _Alchemical Duodecimal_ she heard her door creak open. Christian came in to check on them now that Dumbledore had left. He sat atop the covers next to Ali and she settled into her father’s form the way her brother had fallen asleep next to her. They spoke about pointless stuff until all three of them had fallen asleep where Kanika found them after her shift.

*

  
The weeks ticked by easily with Ali spending almost all of her time with her little brother and parents. She made one trip to her neighbour’s house to catch up at the request of her mother, but found it hard to keep a conversation going and decided against doing it again. She still found social interactions with anyone her own age slightly taxing. They travelled by Floo to their grandparents’ house in south-west England late one afternoon. Her paternal grandparents owned an estate in the small town of Ottery St Catchpole, where her father had grown up.   
  
‘Come  _here_!’ Ali’s grandmother made a grab at her and pulled her into a strangling hug once they were out of the fireplace. If there was one thing she disliked about her grandparents, it was her grandmother’s hugs. They were suffocating.  
  
‘Goodness look how pretty you’ve gotten!’ Her grandmother fussed. ‘Do you see this Tucker? Do you? She’s stunning!’ She spoke to her husband, for which Ali’s little brother was named after.  
  
‘Mum, calm down you’re choking her.’ Christian pulled Ali free and she rejoiced in her head. Her grandmother screamed when Kanika put Tucker junior down and scooped him straight back up.  
  
‘Anne you really do need to calm down.’ Ali’s grandfather sighed as Christian let him out of the hug he had crossed the room to give him. No one made more of a fuss about their grandchildren than Anne Adams.   
  
‘Don’t tell me how to live my life, Tucker.’ She poked her tongue out and him and raced off with her grandson to the kitchen where she would undoubtedly be feeding him sweets. They heard the young boy cry out in joy and Ali nodded her head knowingly.   
  
‘Hi Opa.’ Ali said after her grandfather placed a kiss on her forehead.  
  
‘In you come.’ Tucker senior ushered them all away from the fireplace and started cleaning them off immediately with his wand.   
  
‘I’m cooking a Sunday roast!’ They heard Anne cry from the kitchen excitedly. Kanika linked arms with Ali and they all made their way from the lounge to the kitchen where Tucker junior was sat at the large table peeling back wrappers of butterscotch toffees.  
  
‘Kani, you  _have_  to try this.’ Anne grabbed her and they disappeared over to the benches while her father, grandfather and Ali all took a seat with little Tucker.   
  
‘How’s work, son?’ Her grandfather asked straightening the placemats at the table. ‘Are they going to transfer you back to London? You’ve well established the link with our sister country by now?’  
  
‘Uh, yes, they have asked if we want to. Now that Kani is working at St. Mungo’s it’s probably best. The kids just really love where we are. And Albus has been using the place for meetings.’ Christian explained. This was news to Ali. She listened quietly and took a toffee while Tucker shoved a fourth one into his mouth and dribbled slightly from the overload.  
  
‘Tuck!’ Ali chastised. He smiled at her unable to close his teeth together.   
  
‘You should get a place around here.’ Her grandfather suggested.  
  
‘I have been thinking about it.’ While they spoke Aaliyah entertained the idea in her head. She would have to endure a lot more suffocating hugs and her grandmother’s crazy temperament over the holidays, but it would be nice not to be so far away from everyone they knew.   
  
‘We could watch Junior while the two of you were at work!’ Anne joined in the conversation as she and Kanika took seats at the table with cups of tea in tow.  
  
‘It would be easier than finding new babysitters every time he does something horrible to them.’ Kanika agreed with a glance at her son who grinned more evilly than five year old should know how to.  
  
‘It’s settled then! I’m getting my family back from that retched sun-tan place!’ Anne shouted raising a triumphant finger in the air.  
  
‘Mum, calm down, we haven’t agreed to it yet. The kids might not want to move.’ Christian looked over at Ali, and the rest of the table followed suit. Ali froze up at the attention and thought on it for a moment. She did love the beaches and the wonderful weather Australia had to offer. But there wasn’t much to be said about anything else. She spent most of her time at school anyway and this would have made her parents’ lives easier if her father was no longer needed over there.   
  
‘I don’t have a problem with it.’ Ali shrugged and Anne started clapping excitedly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I researched a lot into OWL grades and came to the conclusion that some classes had just one grade where others, like transfig, would have a written and a practical. And that both E's and O's would be considered OWL's. Hope that helps anyone else that might have been thinking about it.


	29. Cokeworth, England

Mrs Potter screamed out when two large cracks of sound signified her boys had answered her calls for them to come down for dinner.  
  
‘Honestly boys! You shouldn’t be apparating everywhere now just because you can! You’ll get lazy, it’s a flight of stairs!’ She glared over at where they stood. James and Sirius both adopted their best attempt at puppy-dog eyes, Sirius’s being infinitely better. She sighed and turned back around as James hooked an arm around Sirius and the two of them laughed taking a seat.  
  
‘Have you done all your summer homework yet?’ Mrs Potter asked conjuring up some sauces for the table.  
  
‘We’ll get around to it.’ James waved the comment off as his father entered the room looking tired and worn.  
  
‘You okay Dad?’ James asked and Mr Potter gave him his best attempt at a smile.  
  
‘Old age, it’s the worst.’ He slumped into a chair. ‘Stay as young as you can, as long as you can boys.’ He nodded at them importantly.   
  
‘Your father has managed it up until now.’ Mrs Potter rolled her eyes placing the fat roast pork down on the table and the rest of the dinner contents levitated to free spots around it. Both the boys chuckled.  
  
‘Hey, up for a trip tonight after dinner?’ James waved suggestive brows towards Sirius with a grin.  
  
‘What did you have in mind?’ Sirius grinned also.  
  
‘I do believe cokeworth is in need of some entertainment tonight.’ James nodded imitating his old father’s important look.  
  
‘You know, I reckon you’re right Prongs.’ Sirius copied him.  
  
‘You two are plotting. Stop it. Pay more attention to your pork.’ Mrs Potter watched them as she served up the pork. It was usually her husband’s job, but he was having a rough time lately and she wanted him doing as little as possible.  
  
‘Yes, Mum!’ James and Sirius both sang in unison. Mrs Potter had to smile at that. After dinner the boys ran upstairs to where James had something hidden away in his messy room.   
  
‘Snagged it, and Pete’s coming over in half an hour.’ James brandished a bottle of firewhisky.  
  
‘What are you going to do? Get drunk and turn up at Evans door?’ Sirius laughed at him, taking the bottle out of his hands.  
  
‘Precisely.’ James threw back and snatched the bottle back, opening it and taking a swig. He turned his nose up at the taste and handed it to Sirius. Sirius shrugged. By the time the bedroom door opened and Peter ambled in with a sleeping bag and knapsack Sirius and James were already laughing loudly at one another.  
  
Peter sighed, ‘What have I walked in on? Are you two snogging again?’  
  
Sirius and James cracked into a fit of laughter at that and James called Sirius closer with loud hand movements.  
  
‘Who’s a good  _boy_?’ James mocked and placed a sloppy kiss on Sirius forehead. Sirius just laughed as Peter threw his things down and took a seat on the carpet with them.  
  
‘Hand some over then.’ Peter made a grab for the bottle and took a swig himself. Out of all the boys, Peter could hold his liquor the best. None of them could ever figure it out, as he was so much shorter than all three of the others. But Peter just never seemed to get drunk. And not only that, but he never showed any signs of regret the next day. He just woke up normally whereas the other all had raging headaches and bad moods. Peter and alcohol was a mystery. After three more swigs from the bottle Peter handed it over to Sirius. Both Sirius and James were staring at him.  
  
‘All ‘ail Wormtail, lord o’ the firewhisky!’ Sirius chanted and the three boys laughed.   
  
‘We’re taking a trip tonight Sir Worm-a-lot.’ James said followed by a burp. He made an unhappy face afterwards at the taste of alcohol.   
  
‘Yeah? Where to?’ Peter asked taking the alcohol back from James. ‘Your mum said Sirius was going to be playing some music for her?’  
  
James glared at Peter after his words. He stood up and stumbled over to the door, opening it.  
  
‘No piano recitals tonight Mum!’ He called out then shut the door behind himself. ‘She’ll be right. Besides, I don’t think f-feather fingers will be on the b-ball tonight.’ James looked down at Sirius hiccoughing and Sirius looked about ready to fall over.  
  
‘Who’s a good puppy? Yes you  _are_.’ James messed up Sirius’s hair and Sirius dropped his jaw in a limp smile.  
  
‘Will you two even be able to apparate?’   
  
‘O’ corz!’ Sirius shouted snatching over the bottle again. ‘Who’re yer talkin’ to Wormtail? Tail of  _worms_?’ Sirius shook his head at him and stood up with James.  
  
‘Lez go! I wan’ Evans ta play wif mah hair.’ Sirius announced swaying and Peter laughed at the two boys as Sirius balanced himself, grabbing onto James.  
  
‘She’s not playing with your hair Padfoot! She’s my lady. Mine! You have your own.’ James glared at him but Sirius pouted.  
  
‘Can’ we shar’ ‘er?’ He gave James a pathetic look. They were silent for a moment while James thought on it, squinting behind his glasses and swaying dangerously.  
  
‘Okay. But only for hair related reasons.’ James decided and took another swig from the firewhisky bottle. By this point, they smelt like a brewery. Peter stood up taking the bottle from them and downing a massive gulp for himself, finishing it off.   
  
‘Right! Let’s go!’ James called out and with a loud crack, he was gone.  
  
Sirius groaned, ‘M-moron! We dun know where she b-bloody lives.’ Sirius frowned, his eyes drooping heavily. Peter just made his way over to the desk in the far corner. He looked over the contents and located something.  
  
‘Here we are, her address. And he’s doodled on it.’ Peter snickered and Sirius galloped over to join him. Sirius barked out a loud laugh when he saw the few small hearts doodled around Lily’s handwriting.  
  
‘Poor old Prongs! Why c-can’ she  _see_?’ Sirius sang out loudly grabbing onto Peter.  
  
‘Silly old Evans! Please look at  _ME_!’ Peter joined in securing Sirius and with a crack, they too were gone. The bedroom door swung open and Mrs Potter looked around the empty room. She looked down and saw the empty bottle of firewhisky and slapped a hand to her forehead.

*

‘Wait, wait-  _wait_.’ Sirius said laughing as he stopped Peter. They saw James stumbling around outside a small gated brick house. Every house in the immediate area looked exactly the same and street was eerily empty and dank for the summer holidays. Sirius smirked and started to transform into his dog form. Peter laughed seeing his plan and did the same. Once he had jumped onto Sirius back, they made their way over to James and James noticed them.  
  
‘Oy!  _Oy_!’ James pointed to them but there wasn’t any time for him to say much else.  
  
‘Potter?’ James flicked around to see Lily standing with two hands filled with grocery bags. She was mystified. She looked down at the large black dog. ‘What are you doing here?’ She was eyeing off the dog. ‘And why have you- I didn’t know you had a dog?’  
  
James just laughed and then hiccoughed scratching Sirius behind the ear as he easily reached his hip height in his transformed state.   
  
‘He’s cute.’ Lily placed her groceries down and crouched lower to the ground. James looked down at Sirius who looked up at him and for a moment it was almost as if the boys were using drunken telepathy.  _Don’t you **dare**_? James’ eyed him. Sirius’ tongue flopped out and he bounded away from his side and came up to Lily. In no time at all Lily was giggling and scratching him behind the ears and then Sirius was on his back receiving a tummy rub and James’ mouth was hanging open.  
  
‘Traitor!’ James called out advancing on them. He noticed Peter not far off and as he came closer and Peter ran to him to climb up his front to hide in the pocket of his hoodie. James stumbled and sank down to where Lily was.  
  
‘Oh my god Potter.’ Lily retracted from him. ‘You smell  _terrible_.’   
  
James whimpered and made a face. Lily watched him for a moment before sighing.  
  
‘How much have you drunk?’ She watched him as James clearly tried to figure out silently how much he actually  _had_  drunk. He finally gave up with a shrug and let his head droop.  
  
‘Is this how you plan to charm girls these days?’ Lily shook her head. ‘Get drunk and turn up to their house with a dog?’ James looked down to where Sirius was laying on his back still receiving pats from Lily.  
  
‘Is it working?’ He asked as Sirius grinned with his tongue hanging out of his mouth.  
  
‘Well,’ Lily contemplated looking down at the dog. He was incredibly docile and soft. ‘The dog was a pretty good idea.’ There was a loud bark at that that made Lily jump and James fall flat on his arse. Lily laughed at him, standing up and offering him a hand. James took it and grinned at her once he was up. They stood very close and very quiet for a moment before there was another bark and James glared down at the dog.  
  
‘Shut up!’ He shouted at it and Lily smacked him.  
  
‘Don’t be mean, Potter! He’s just an innocent animal.’ She chastised and turned back to collect up her groceries.   
  
‘Innocent my arse.’ He muttered, ‘Can I give you a- hand?’ James asked hiccoughing again.  
  
‘Can you  _walk_?’ Lily smirked at him, then passed him a few bags. ‘I suppose you can come in for a bit. Mum and Dad are out to dinner with Petunia and her boyfriend.’ Lily rolled her eyes at that.  
  
‘What’s wrong with that?’ James asked following along behind her, trying his best not to trip over on Sirius as he pranced along beside Lily. For someone so drunk, he didn’t seem it in the slightest as a dog. Once Lily had opened the front door Sirius made a mad dash inside and went straight for the stairs.  
  
‘Uhm, he is toilet trained isn’t he?’ Lily asked watching as the dog disappeared around the corner and out of sight upstairs.  
  
‘Mostly.’ James nodded and chuckled to himself. They heard a toilet flush and Lily gave James the strangest look. ‘He’s intelligent.’ James nodded.   
  
‘Why aren’t- why aren’t you at dinner?’ James sagged under the weight of the groceries and Lily directed him further in to the house and through to the kitchen. They placed the contents down on the bench and James eyes went wide at everything around him.  
  
‘Apparently it was a freak-free dinner.’ Lily rolled her eyes but when she turned back to James he was bent over the toaster, poking it.  
  
‘ _What is this_!?’ James looked up at her with a massive smile, his hazel eyes lighting up. Lily couldn’t help but laugh at him.  
  
‘A toaster.’  
  
‘What does it  _do_?!’ He lifted it up and turned it upside down and a mass of charred crumbs fell out. Lily groaned.  
  
‘It makes  _toast_ , Potter.’ She abandon the unpacking of the groceries her mother had instructed her to buy and grabbed a kitchen cloth.   
  
‘Muggles have an entire invention for browning bread?’ James said with an air of excitement. Lily grabbed the toaster off him and started sweeping up the crumbs. James was gone when she looked up.  
  
‘What is  _this_!?’ He opened the fridge door and smiled. He closed it and then moved onto the blender. Lily couldn’t help but laugh at him. He was darting from one thing to the next and twice he tripped over his own feet in his excitement.  
  
‘Lily how do you handle your excitement over this stuff? This is all amazing!’ He was holding up a pen from the bench and examining it closely now. Lily’s cheeks went pink. She made her way over to him and took the pen from his hand.  
  
‘What are you doing here Potter?’ She asked, her face inches from his as his glasses slipped down the bridge of his nose. He swayed a little from side to side and smiled weakly at her.  
  
‘I wanted to see you.’ He replied. Lily’s cheeks got redder.   
  
‘That doesn’t mean you just show up at someone’s house unannounced, and drunk.’ She crossed her arms over her chest but didn’t move any further away. James pouted still swaying. ‘Well, you may as well be of some use if you’re here. Help me unpack.’ That made him smile.  
  
They moved back to the groceries and James’s excitement picked up all over again.   
  
‘What does this do!?’ He asked pulling a can of beans out of the bag. Lily snorted she laughed so hard. Then she noticed James’ front pocket move.  
  
‘What’s in your pocket?’ She asked and a rat’s head poked out the side. She screamed and then James screamed and for a moment they both stood together screaming until Lily hit him.  
  
‘There’s a  _rat_  in your pocket! A giant great  _rat_!’  
  
James looked down, ‘Oh yeah, that’s just- my pet rat!’ James smirked as Peter climbed out of his pocket and onto the bench.   
  
‘Oh that’s disgusting Potter.’ She made a face. ‘Why don’t you bring him to school? I’ve never seen you with any pets at school? Where the hell did your dog go?’  
  
‘Oh yeah.’ James remembered. His excitement of the kitchen appliances had gotten the better of him. He made to pass Lily to call out to for Sirius but he tripped over her foot in the process and went crashing to the ground.  
  
‘Potter! Potter are you okay?’ Lily shrieked and got down to his level and once his eyes were open she was hovering above him looking fretful. He didn’t say anything for a moment and just stared up at her. There was a long silence in which they both smiled at each other. It was broken only by a muffled growl and their attention was turned to the giant black dog sitting by them with the sliest look a dog had ever worn on its face and a book in its mouth.  
  
Lily screamed and dived for the dog, ripping the book away from it.  
  
‘What’s that?’ James asked sitting up and rubbing his back.  
  
‘Nothing!’ Lily shrieked and disappeared at a run. James looked at Sirius as the dog sat back down beside him looking very triumphant. He settled his eyes on James as Peter leapt off the bench into James lap. James started laughing at the strange scene when Lily reappeared.   
  
‘Your dog is trouble!’ Lily announced as she looked down at James and could have sworn she saw the black dog hiccough. ‘Although I wouldn’t expect any less of an animal raised by you.’   
  
Sirius began making whimpering noises and moved towards Lily who only held back for less than thirty seconds before she got back down and started patting him again. Sirius barked at her then licked her face and that’s when James got up and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck.  
  
‘You little  _shit_!’ James yelled but Lily froze when she heard a car pull up outside.  
  
‘Oh my god! My parents are home! Petunia will freak _out_  if she sees you when Vernon’s around. Go upstairs and hide!’ Lily grabbed James by his hood and pulled him along to the staircase. She shoved him onto the first step and he fell over in his drunken haze. He couldn’t figure out which foot to put first, he was freaking out himself.  
  
‘Go up to my room, don’t you dare touch anything though! It’s the first one on the right.’ As she finished Sirius bounded by them up the stairs with Peter on his back. He barked at the top. ‘Keep him quiet!’ Lily chastised and pushed James again.  
  
James ran up the stairs falling over twice and met Sirius at the top and swung around the corner straight into Lily’s room and shut the door. Had he not been so drunk he might have been decidedly excited over the fact that he was in her house at all, let alone in her bedroom. But with his intoxicated thought pattern he was just freaking out over being found by her parents.  
  
‘Should we go?’ James looked down at Sirius and Peter, still swaying on his feet. Sirius shook his head. He bounced over to Lily’s bed and jumped on. Peter flung himself off and started rummaging around in her things. That’s when James fell very silent looking around the room. It wasn’t anything overly embarrassing. There was nothing bright pink. She had a few pictures up on her wall of Marlene, Mary and herself waving back. It was an odd assortment of muggle and magical objects. Her bedspread was white, as was most of her furniture.   
  
James went over to her dresser to examine the things spread out on the top. There were a few pretty bottles of perfume and an open jewellery box filled with earrings and necklaces and other such things. He pulled a few out to examine them. Once he replaced them he began sniffing the perfumes. The smells all made him feel light and happy as they reminded him of Lily. He turned around to her bed and saw that Sirius was sleeping on his back on her covers and Peter was pushing his head in his rat form trying to wake him.  
  
James heard someone coming up the stairs and panicked and ran to Lily’s wardrobe and dived inside leaving Sirius and Peter out in the open. The door opened and James began to sweat. This wasn’t what he had planned at all. He wasn’t even sure what he planned for tonight. All he really knew was that as they left the platform, he had asked Lily for her address to write to her. Expecting her to turn him down, when she had given it to him, he decided he would visit her at some point instead. A third of a bottle of firewhisky made you do really stupid things. He just wanted to see her. It had been weeks since term finished.   
  
‘What are you doing in my wardrobe you idiot?’ Lily smirked at him as she opened up the doors and found him cowering in her hung up clothing. He looked pathetic standing in there among her coats and dresses. His glasses were askew and she reached out and fixed them on his nose.  
  
‘Should- should I go?’ James asked stepping out of the clothing.  
  
‘You can stay for a bit if you like?’ Lily smiled at him and James felt his whole body relax. Lily walked over to her bed and sat down by Sirius and scratched him behind the ear. Sirius opened his eyes blearily and started panting. James glared at him. He looked around the room uncomfortably for somewhere to stand or sit.   
  
‘Sit down Potter.’ Lily shook her head at the drunken boy as he came forward and sat on the bed on the other side of the dog. ‘He is a cute dog, I must admit.’ Lily smiled down at the large black dog unknowingly but James knew better. He glared at Sirius sobering up a little by this point.  
  
‘H-How have you been Evans?’ James asked, as his hand made its signature move up to his hair.  
  
‘Okay. Been dodging my sister all holidays. She’s been in a foul mood.’ Lily looked saddened at that. James didn’t like that look at all.  
  
‘Why’s she so angry? You live in such a cool house, why would anyone ever be angry in here?’ Lily looked like she was trying very hard not to laugh at him after that sentence.  
  
‘What are you even doing here Potter? This has to be the strangest thing that’s happened to me all summer.’ The smile she provided him with after that made James blush. He wasn’t sure if it was because of the alcohol or because of just how pretty she looked in her jeans and her simple white t-shirt, with her hair out.  
  
‘I thought I told you.’ James frowned. ‘I wanted to see you.’   
  
Lily looked down at that knowing her face must have turned bright red. She was at a loss for words and there was a deafening silence around the room now. The only thing that could be heard was the conversation going on downstairs between her parents, sister, and her sister’s foul boyfriend. When she looked up at James he looked nervous and his hand was in his hair.  
  
‘Uh, and-‘ he started with a laugh, ‘and- I just wanted to let you know you don’t need any defence against my dark arts!’ He laughed so loudly he didn’t even realise Lily had grabbed the book Sirius had brought downstairs earlier and smacked him upside the head with it.  
  
‘Go home Potter!’ She stood up and crossed her arms. James pouted at her. ‘And how about you send me an owl next time, instead of turning up. The written word is a much more efficient way to a girl’s heart.’ She smiled at him and James felt his chest swell with happiness. He grabbed hold of Sirius and Peter and with a crack they were gone. They landed back on James’ bed and Sirius and Peter transformed back.  
  
‘I lef’ mah cloves back there!’ Sirius complained standing stark naked with Peter. Peter immediately went for his knapsack and found something to wear but Sirius stood swaying for a moment.  
  
‘How is it you don’t seem drunk as a dog, but you’re pissed as a human? Honestly Padfoot, maybe you should make the change permanent?’ James laughed and fell onto his bed. Sirius went over to James’s wardrobe and located a pair of his pyjama bottoms.  
  
‘Enjoy having her hands all over you, did you then? Stupid mut.’ James grated out staring at him as he pulled on the plaid flannel pyjama pants.   
  
‘Oh, t’was heavenly.’ Sirius announced and joined James on the bed, falling into it rather less elegantly than he usually would.   
  
‘Maybe I’ll transform and get friendly with Adams!’ James sat up angrily. Sirius shrugged limply on the bed not having the energy to do much else other than suffocate face first in James’s blankets.  
  
‘I think you’re both missing the point here.’ Peter started as he made up his bed on the floor. ‘I could see them both naked if I wanted to.’ He laughed and James hurled a pillow at him. The door creaked open and they all looked up to where Mrs Potter stood.  
  
‘Where did you all get off to? Stealing your father’s firewhisky James, I thought better of you!’ She frowned at them, but when she fixed her stare on Sirius it immediately softened. He looked pathetically drunk.  
  
‘Right. You all need some hot cocoa then. You’re a lot of sad sacks.’ She smiled at them and the boys all cheered jumping up. James threw his mother into a hug as she giggled as Sirius tripped over Peter’s bed. 


	30. Uncle Alphard's will

These holidays had been some of the best of Sirius’s life to date. It was late on Thursday afternoon coming up to the start of the school year now, and Sirius was helping Mrs Potter in the kitchen. They were baking an elaborate dinner together. Sirius was joining Mrs Potter in the kitchen most afternoons as he had grown tired of James’s secretive attitude since they had visited Lily the week prior. Mrs Potter was talking to him easily about her gravy recipe and Sirius had himself perched on the bench using the  _diffindo_  charm to cut up the potatoes and rid them of their skins.   
  
He sat in wonder, thinking just how different things had been for him this time last year. The last summer holidays had seen Sirius snap and run away from home. He could still remember the night like it was yesterday evening. He could remember running upstairs after he and his mother having yet another screaming match over dinner and he could remember throwing anything he cared for into his trunk and pulling the posters of motorbikes off his walls but leaving the ones of muggle girls in bikini’s up, just to aggravate his mother further. She hated those ones, along with the Gryffindor banners, most. He remembered pulling his trunk down the hall and coming to a halt before his brother, who stood quietly with Kreacher.  
  
He remembered asking Regulus if he wanted to come with him, and the look on his brother’s face being severe and torn. Once their father approached Sirius didn’t have time for niceties though and after only narrowly missing his third strike he fled to the calls that he was never to return. He could still remember the rain pouring down and becoming soaked to his core as he sat out in the streets of London confused as to what to do next. When the knight bus had turned up and asked him where he was headed, the first thing that popped into his head had been James’s address. By the time he arrived he wasn’t sure of whether he should knock or not.   
  
He stood on the front porch of their large estate in Tutshill, England as the rain belted down in a torrential summer storm. He couldn’t work up the courage to knock and he just stared at the door for the longest time wondering if it was okay for him to just  _turn up_ unannounced. But before he had a chance to turn it over in his head any further, he had heard James voice grow louder and then the front door swung open and James looked out from where he had been calling back to his mother and blinked at Sirius. He hadn’t hesitated for a moment before he ran out and grabbed Sirius and pulled him inside.  _What the hell are you doing standing in the rain you silly dog._  He had asked before dragging him silently up the stairs and pushing him into the bathroom telling him to have a hot shower and warm up.  
  
After his shower, he could still remember coming out wary of his surroundings but he had been met with James again who dragged him down to the kitchen where Mrs Potter was stirring mugs of hot chocolate with a wide smile. He could still remember having to lean down to hug her as she motioned him forward to do so. He could still remember the calm that had settled around him as Mrs Potter examined his face and made quick work of the split lip and the bruise forming on his forehead. He could still remember distinctly the kiss she laid there afterwards.   
  
She was smiling just as widely now as she made her way expertly around the kitchen. She was certainly no spring chicken, but she didn’t let on to the fact. When she disappeared for a moment to bring Mr Potter some tea in the sitting room Sirius finished off the potatoes and smiled. When he had first arrived at the Potter’s he wasn’t sure how to handle himself. He was awkward and shy. But Mrs Potter and Mr Potter had welcomed him so openly that he finally felt himself settling into the idea that he would never have to return to his prison of a home. He never wanted to return to that place.  _Never_.   
  
He chuckled at the idea of his mother having a hard time with the posters in his room, he had used a permanent sticking charm after all. He felt himself rear into attack mode however when Mrs Potter returned muttering crossly.  
  
‘What is it? Are you okay?’ He jumped down from the bench to inspect her and Mrs Potter laughed.  
  
‘Yes sweetie, I’m fine. I’m just getting a little tired of that boy’s attitude this week. What’s with all this yelling when I go into his room? He’s guarding his desk like a territorial hippogriff.’ Mrs Potter shook her head, clearly explaining James’s current demeanour.  
  
Sirius laughed, ‘He’s trying to write a letter to Evans I expect.’ Mrs Potter’s eyes widened at this.  
  
‘Sirius, tell me  _everything_.’ She requested starting up with the cooking again but not taking her eyes off him. Sirius contemplated for a moment keeping it from her, as James seemed to want it that way. But with a shrug of his shoulders and a wicked grin on his lips he launched into a detailed report.  
  
‘Well, her names is Lily Evans.’ Mrs Potter nodded excitedly, ‘She’s pretty great actually. Really smart girl, pretty switched on. She a prefect.’ He added and Mrs Potter clapped her hands. ‘She’s attractive too I reckon, got really lovely red hair.’ He explained and Mrs Potter laughed.  
  
‘Oh he takes after his father, no doubt about it.’ She grinned knowingly.   
  
‘Yeah, but she gives him a pretty rough time. In her defence, James is a bit of a berk around her. Keeps shouting at her to go out with him in corridors, and then hexes her.’ Sirius shook his head. He had known for a long time that James’s approach towards Lily was arguably ridiculous.  
  
‘Oh what an  _idiot_. Doesn’t he know how to  _treat_  a woman? I’m going to have a word with him.’  
  
‘He’s getting better at it. He was  _rubbish_  in fifth year when it all started, but he’s getting there.’ Sirius smiled, ‘We went to visit her the other night. When Peter came by.’  
  
‘What? All three of you went?’ Mrs Potter raised a brow as she prepared the chicken to cook.  
  
‘Uh, yeah. Pete and I were under the cloak. For moral support.’ Sirius lied.  
  
‘I can’t believe he gave that blasted thing to James. He’s encouraging him.’ Mrs Potter looked towards the sitting room door with a small scowl, but it disappeared nearly instantly. ‘But, tell me more.’  
  
‘Now, you can’t tell James this, it’ll take all the fun out of it.’ Sirius warned and looked around for good measure to make sure they were alone. Mrs Potter looked eager. ‘I saw her diary when we were there, and I had just a  _little_  peak.’  
  
‘Sirius!’ Mrs Potter chastised, but her cross attitude didn’t last long. Sirius gave her his puppy dog eyes and she chuckled at him for being the dork that he was.  
  
‘It was just a little peak, and from what I read, they’ll be together before the Christmas holidays, I assure you.’ He nodded in confirmation and Mrs Potter squealed happily.  
  
‘Well?’ She smiled at him expectantly. Sirius looked back at her slightly confused. She smacked his leg lightly, before collecting up the potatoes to put them with the chicken ‘what about you?’ She asked.  
  
Sirius made a face at that. He wasn’t really the type to go around chatting about girls. But Mrs Potter looked so pleased at the idea of James and Lily, he shrugged.  
  
‘There is  _kind_  of someone. Maybe.’ He had to hold back a laugh as Mrs Potter clutched his knees, abandoning the chook and veggies. ‘But I don’t think I really have a chance with her.’  
  
‘Oh Sirius don’t be modest. You’re handsome as they come.’ She tutted and went back to the food, ordering him to continue with a wave of her hand.  
  
‘No, not like that. I mean, I’ve kind of been a bit of a git around her. She thinks I’m a huge nuisance.’ Sirius frowned thinking about it. Then he thought back to the nights he had spent in detention with the prefect just before they left for the holidays and couldn’t help the smile that came to his face.  
  
‘Well, you can’t force a girl to like you.’ Mrs Potter agreed. ‘But, tell me a bit about her. Maybe I can help?’ She sounded so excited, Sirius had to indulge her. But he checked the doors again to make sure James wasn’t around.  
  
‘Uh, well. She’s a bit of a do-gooder.’ He actually snorted at that. Understatement of the century, ‘she thinks I’m an idiot cause of all the, uh, silly stuff the boys and I get up to.’ Mrs Potter gave him a knowing look at that, she received the owls, she knew. But Sirius continued, ‘She’s a bit odd too. Doesn’t really talk to many people. Always has her head in a book and pretty much lives in the library when she’s not chasing me around trying to get me into trouble.’  
  
‘She chases you around?’ Mrs Potter asked with a smirk.  
  
‘Yeah, but it’s not what it sounds like. She’s a prefect, too. A lot more into her title than Evans is. Evans is a bit of a softy, really kind girl, even if she’s fantastic with a wand. Adams’ just likes dishing out punishment I reckon. Bit of a sadist.’ He couldn’t help but smirk a little. She was rather sadistic. He remembered her cold laughter when he had tripped over a cup coming towards her the night James had decided to throw a party.  
  
‘Sweetie, if there’s one thing I can tell you, it’s that a girl doesn’t actively chase you around if she doesn’t want anything to do with you.’ Mrs Potter was smiling knowingly.  
  
‘This one does. She’s always saying she wished she didn’t run into me so often, but she’s always there when I’m doing something wrong.’ Sirius sighed. He didn’t dare tell Mrs Potter that a fair amount of the times she’d caught him, he had also made it so that he was doing things  _in front of her_. He did it for a laugh quite a few times last year. He loved the way she reacted. That’s when Mrs Potter started laughing at him.  
  
‘Sirius, dear, I went to Hogwarts. That school is a  _maze_. Do you really believe that a girl who wants nothing more than to be as far away from you, would just  _happen_  to show up wherever you were?’ She finished. Sirius made to protest but he pulled up short in thought. She had a point. He certainly had made it impossible for her to dismiss him in their middle term, but there were times when she definitely had been seeking him out.  
  
‘So, you think I might have a chance?’  
  
‘Only if you stop being such a menace. The both of you.’ Mrs Potter shook her head, but she was still smiling, ‘But the most important thing to remember is to be yourself Sirius. You’re wonderful sweetie, she’d be crazy not to love you.’ She finished as James pushed open the door to the kitchen and strolled in.  
  
‘What’s this? Who loves you? What have I told you about hitting on my Mum Padfoot?’ James smirked up at Sirius and then looked to his mother.  
  
‘Oh, I was just giving Sirius a little advice on women.’ Mrs Potter said and Sirius froze in dread, ‘for you.’ She continued with a smirk. ‘Sounds like you have quite the predicament on your hands honey. How is your letter coming along? Hope you’re not filling it with silly innuendos? Girl’s don’t think you nearly as funny as you think yourselves.’   
  
Sirius barked out a long, loud string of laughter as James’s face started to turn bright red.   
  
‘I’m not writing a letter!’ He demanded glaring at Sirius. But his argument was cut short by an owl floating in through the open kitchen window. It landed by Sirius and held out its leg for him. He took the letter and looked at the back.  
  
‘Gringotts? That’s odd.’ He voiced as Mrs Potter and James gathered around him. Mrs Potter held out some food for the owl. Sirius broke the very regal looking seal and pulled the letter out and scanned over it. His eyes grew to the size of saucers and James craned his neck to get a look.  
  
‘Sirius.’ James said softly, his anger completely draining from his being as he looked up to his best friend. ‘You didn’t tell me your uncle died?’  
  
Mrs Potter immediately pulled him off the counter and into a hug. Sirius let his arm holding the letter hang down beside him as he was forced to hunch down and hug the much smaller old lady. It was an official request for him to be at Gringotts this coming Monday, August the 22nd to go over the proceedings of his Uncle Alphard’s will. He had apparently left his entire fortune, which was a substantial sum, to his eldest nephew, Sirius Orion Black.

*

As time ticked on and Mr and Mrs Potter had taken Sirius to his appointment with the goblins of Gringotts, Sirius had started to realise how independent this made him. He felt unimaginable sadness knowing that his Uncle cared for him so much, and yet he couldn’t have been with him when he passed. He felt guilty for being bestowed with his fortune. But his Uncle had never married or had children of his own and he knew he probably cared for Sirius more than any of his other family members, and so would have much rather the money fall into his lap instead of either his sister or brothers. So Sirius tried to accept it. He wasn’t sure what to do. He loved living with the Potter’s, but Mr Potter seemed to be having a very rough time lately and he didn’t like the idea of imposing on them while he didn’t need to.  
  
‘Maybe I should get a place of my own?’ Sirius suggested as he and James ambled down the streets of Tutshill. He looked around at the quaint little cottages as they dodged two young children running by, laughing loudly in each other’s wake.   
  
‘Don’t be an idiot.’ James shook his head looking up at the white clouds overhead. It was a mostly sunny day and they were taking in the lovely summer sunshine.  
  
‘No, really. I could get a little flat or something? It could be cool. I can’t leech off your parents forever.’ Sirius said as a car drove by.  
  
‘Well,’ James started, ‘I suppose if you did that, we could all come and have big piss up’s at your place. Bachelor pad!’ James cheered and Sirius started laughing as a muggle drove by on a motorbike. Sirius narrowed his eyes after it and decided on something.  
  
‘But first off, I want one of those.’ He grinned over at James and James returned the look.  
  
‘Oh, yeah. That. That I can certainly indulge in fully.’ James nodded in agreement and they listened as the motorbike’s roar died off into the distance.  
  
‘Where the hell do you get one?’ Sirius contemplated tapping his chin.   
  
‘Well, Moony’s mum’s a muggle. And Peter’s dad’s muggle born. They know more about this stuff.’ James decided and they raced home to contact their friends. Once they were inside James bedroom they attached two quickly scrawled notes to Peter and Remus respectively and James instructed the family owl to go to Remus first, then off to Peter. They made their way downstairs and Sirius made them sandwiches as Mr and Mrs Potter were out today getting Mr Potter checked at St Mungo’s.  
  
There was a loud crack and sounds signalling someone had arrived upstairs and the boys abandoned the remains of their lunch and ran up to see who it was. Remus was standing in James’ bedroom with a grin.  
  
‘I know exactly where to go!’ He announced before they even had a chance to greet him. Then there was another crack and Peter was tripping over James bed sheets. They laughed at his lack of grace and then started planning out how to go about purchasing Sirius a muggle motorbike.  
  
Remus explained that he was going to need muggle money and the four boys left for Gringotts. James and Peter stayed back, poking fun at the Goblins while Remus accompanied Sirius to his newly filled vault. The ride was just as thrilling as ever, yet Remus didn’t find it nearly as fun as Sirius did. Once they secured what Remus thought would be more than enough, they made their journey back and had it changed over to pounds.  
  
‘This money is mental. How does this hold any value? It looks like a book mark. And who’s this lady on it? What does she do?’  
  
‘That’s the Queen of England Sirius,’ Remus laughed, ‘how sheltered were you from the muggle word?’   
  
‘Hey, no one needs a Queen anymore. That’s barbaric. Don’t muggles have a government?’ James argued sticking up for Sirius as they walked out of the Leaky Cauldron’s London exit and out into Charing Cross Road.  
  
‘They have a government you idiots.’ Peter shook his head at them. Remus led the way with Peter as James and Sirius fell behind and discussed together how incredibly strange everything around them was. A few girls pointed at them and giggled and Sirius frowned.  
  
‘What’s funny?’ He asked as they walked further and further and Remus stopped them at a cross walk.  
  
‘Well,’ Remus rolled his eyes, ‘the two of you  _are_  wearing matching shirts.’ He looked across to them as they waited for the signal telling them it was okay to cross.  
  
‘Hey!’ James shouted hooking an arm around Sirius and smacking his chest with a fist, ‘Mum bought us these cause she thought we both looked dashing in red.’   
  
‘Yeah, and Mum’s always right.’ Sirius defended Mrs Potter but Remus just pushed them both out onto the road where Peter was already making his way across. When they located a shop with the words “Motorcycle Dealer” out the front they made their way inside. Remus suggested a few, but of course Sirius had other plans. He found possibly the most flashy looking bike and threw money at the shop assistant, who was beyond shocked to see a fully cash purchase. Once the bike was in their possession Sirius realised something.  
  
‘Uh, how are we to get this home?’ He looked to James first. James shrugged.  
  
‘I can ride it.’ Peter piped in and they all turned to him in amazement.  
  
‘What? Since when?’ Sirius smiled down at him in a new found appreciation of their shorter friend.  
  
‘Uh, well, Dad has a scooter.’ He replied and Remus started laughing.  
  
‘It’s a little different Wormtail, do you think you’ll manage?’ But Peter wouldn’t hear of it. He told Remus and James to go along ahead of them and that they’d see them soon enough. With Sirius on the back and Peter feeling confident they set off back to Tutshill. It took Peter a bit to get used to the features of the bike, but after an hour he was riding it rather well. Sirius was laughing so happily on the back, holding onto Peter, Peter couldn’t help but smile.  
  
It took them over two and a half hours to arrive back at James’s but neither of them minded, the bike was a dream to ride. When they got home it was dark out and James and Remus ran out upon their arrival and demanded Peter take them both for a spin. Once the rounds were made all the boys were in love with the bike. Mr and Mrs Potter arrived home and Mrs Potter nearly had a heart attack over the fact that Sirius and Peter rode such a dangerous muggle contraption all the way from  _London_!  
  
When Mrs Potter ushered them all inside for dinner, demanding all the boys stay, James asked how the visit to St. Mungo’s had gone and Mr Potter waved it off nonchalantly, but Sirius noticed the worry on Mrs Potter’s face behind him. At dinner and owl arrived with their Hogwarts letters. Even Peter’s and Remus’s were among them.   
  
‘Dumbledore is something else, hey.’ James shook his head cracking the seal of his letter to see what books they needed for the year. Sirius was watching him with a casual smirk. James’s jaw literally dropped.  
  
‘What is it? What’s wrong?’ Mrs Potter fussed getting to her feet and coming around to James. She slapped a hand over her mouth looking down at the letter and tears started to form in her eyes. ‘Show your father!’ She shouted and James jumped up and made his way over to his dear old dad, his face beaming.  
  
‘That’s my boy!’ Mr Potter got to his feet and grabbed his son into a hug and Peter and Remus looked to each other, quite confused.  
  
‘What’s going on Prongs?’ Remus asked and James turned to them, his face turning into a wicked smile.  
  
‘I got Head Boy!’ He announced and both Peter and Remus’s shock was shown unabashedly. ‘Do you think there’s a chance Lily got Head Girl? Moony write to your girlfriend immediately!’ James implored. Remus was in too much shock. Sirius started laughing.  
  
‘Something tells me she’s definitely Head Girl, mate.’ He smirked over to Mrs Potter and gave her a wink. She was wiping tears of joy from her eyes as she hugged her husband from behind where he was now seated back in his chair.


	31. The Hogwarts Express

Lily waved over to Marlene and Mary once she spotted them on the platform.   
  
‘You’ll be alright then, dear?’ Her mother smiled at her where she stood beside her father and sister.   
  
‘Yeah Mum, thanks for the lift. I’ll write to you about the holidays, I might have to stay now that I’m head girl.’ Lily beamed. Her mother and father smiled back widely.  
  
‘We’re so proud of you Lily-pad.’ Her father moved forward and kissed her sweetly on the forehead. She hugged them both then turned to her sister.   
  
‘And I love  _you_  Petunia!’ She announced loudly and threw her sister into a bear hug. Petunia squawked and pushed her off and began muttering and playing with her fine blonde hair. ‘Say hello to Vernon for me.’ She winked at her and bid her family goodbye. After they left she made her way over to Mary and Marlene, levitating her trunk behind her. Being seventeen was a  _god send_.   
  
When they’d located an empty compartment towards the back end, she sat down quickly before the train got moving and she’d have to leave them for the prefect carriages up the front.  
  
‘You guys won’t  _believe_  this.’ She said as they settled in.  
  
‘You got Head Girl, we know Lily.’ Marlene rolled her eyes. Lily frowned at her, unamused.  
  
‘No, actually. That wasn’t the news. Potter came to my house over the holidays!’ She had been holding back from owling them about it for weeks now just to savour their faces. Oh it was  _worth it_. Mary shrieked and jumped up, her hair flicking out all around her, and Marlene raised a hand for a high five, which Lily obliged her in.  
  
‘What happened!?’ Marlene demanded, ‘are you two dating yet or what?’   
  
‘No, don’t be ridiculous. He showed up at my house pissed as a fart with a bloody farm in tow.’  
  
‘What?’ Mary was laughing, pinning one side of her dark hair back. It had fallen out from her outburst.  
  
‘Yeah, turns up on my doorstep with a dog and a rat. Honestly, I didn’t know what to do.’ Lily rolled her eyes at the thought but couldn’t stop herself from smiling either. Marlene burst out laughing.  
  
‘A dog and a rat? Why on  _earth_?’  
  
‘Don’t ask me, I’m still confused. Then he starts getting frantic over all the kitchen appliances. Honestly, you’d think he was loony.’ Lily was still smiling. Marlene didn’t miss the nostalgic behaviour and smirked at her knowingly.  
  
‘So, what are you going to call your first born then?’ She said crossing her legs, leaning back into the seat of their private compartment. Lily pouted as they heard the whistle announcing that the train would be taking off any second.  
  
‘I better get going. I have to instruct the prefects. This is all so strange.’ She blushed happily.  
  
‘Who’s Head Boy?’ Mary asked and Lily shrugged looking to Marlene.  
  
‘It’s not Remus is it? I don’t think he’d be up to it with him being- uh, well he’s always getting sick.’  
  
‘He’s not  _always_  getting sick.’ Marlene snapped in his defence. ‘But no. He’s not Head Boy. Maybe it’s Catchlove’s fat head boyfriend in Ravenclaw?’ She suggested with a shrug but there was a slight smirk on her lips that she seemed to be trying to hide.  
  
‘How annoying. I would have preferred Remus. Having another Gryffindor would have made life so much easier. I’ll have to have so many meetings outside of the common room now.’ Lily sighed getting to her feet and waving to them.  
  
‘Tell Remus to come back here with you when you’re done!’ Marlene shouted to her retreating form. Lily had been so shocked the day she got her list informing her of her school supplies for this year, it had been accompanied with a very regal looking letter informing her that she had been chosen as  _Head Girl_. She was gobsmacked. But also thrilled. This meant Dumbledore thought very highly of her, and being born to muggles, she always tried her best to be recognised than more than just her parentage.   
  
When she got to the entrance of the front two carriages designated to the prefects she sighed seeing none other than James Potter grinning at her like a buffoon and blocking her way passed.  
  
‘What is it this time Potter? Got another cheesy line for me about wands?’ She shook her head but he said nothing. When she stopped in front of him her eyes drifted down to his chest against her will as they sometimes did and she froze. There, in plain sight, fixed to his chest was not only his quidditch captain badge, but also a shiny new edition reading ‘H.B’.  
  
‘ **No way**!’ She pointed at him confoundedly. ‘You weren’t even a prefect! Is this a joke!?’  
  
James waved his brows at her behind his glasses, puffing out his chest out importantly as Remus popped his head around the entrance door behind James.  
  
‘I’m  _so_  sorry Lily, I wanted to write to you. Marlene told me you got Head Girl. But he wanted to surprise you of course.’ Remus rolled his eyes.  
  
‘This is a  **joke**.’ Lily snapped, ‘Who’s Head Boy? Who’s lent you the badge?  **Who**?!’ She grabbed James by his shirt but his wide mouthed grin didn’t falter. His eyes were huge behind his glasses.  
  
‘It’s not a joke.’ Remus was shaking his head. Lily craned her neck over James’s taller form to see Remus better letting James free from her grasp, gaping. When she looked back to James he was still grinning. He hadn’t said a word, he just looked so triumphant and smug.  
  
‘What’s going on up here?’ Lily looked sideways to where Adams had taken up the space beside her. Her jaw dropped at the sight before them.  
  
‘I knew Dumbledore was up to something!’ She pointed at James indignantly. ‘This has to be kind of  _joke_!’ She heaved and Lily felt her lips tug into a smile as the younger prefect’s reaction completely mirrored her own.  
  
‘Not a joke!’ Remus sighed again from behind James, as he left the doorway and found a seat. Adams charged by James and disappeared inside. She could hear her questioning Remus which left James and Lily standing before each other. Lily now wore a bemused sort of lopsided smile while James’s grin still hadn’t lessened.   
  
‘Don’t.  _Even_.’ She held up a finger of warning, her smile growing. She couldn’t help it. His smile grew too, if it were possible. He could have already fit their school trunks in it as it was.  
  
‘Alright there Evans?’ He looked about ready to crack open, spilling the contents of his mirth filled body all over her. Lily couldn’t help herself. She cracked into a fit of laughter. She gripped her knees doubled over and chuckled uncontrollably. When she looked up James was still smiling, but it was much quainter and his hand was in his hair.  
  
‘Oh, Potter.’ Lily said, wiping a tear from her cheek. ‘What the hell am I going to do with you?’ As soon as the words left her mouth her eyes went wide. She had basically just poured five litres of gasoline on an out of control bonfire. She fixed her gaze on James but he was merely smiling sweetly.  
  
‘We should probably get inside, order some prefect’s around or something.’ He looked very happy with himself at that and Lily tried to cover up her shock. The lines he could have come up with from her previous comment were endless, but he just stepped aside and offered her to go in first.   
  
She walked in and sat down on the empty seat along from Adams who was already seated with her counterpart prefect Dirk Cresswell. Dirk was eyeing her off timidly which Adams seemed to be entirely oblivious to. James settled into the seat across from them with Remus and Lily blinked through the silence in the car.  
  
‘So,’ Adams broke the silence, ‘what would you like us to do?’ Lily turned to her to see her face held an unamused scowl towards James, she clearly didn’t approve of the new position he had been awarded with. Lily sniggered.  
  
‘Oh come on Adams! We’re chums aren’t we?’ James smirked at her suggestively. Her face, as Lily looked back to observe, remained just as unperturbed. She had always been a hard case to crack. Strangely enough after that James stood up and launched into instructions for them after the two newest Gryffindor prefects, as well as all six of the Ravenclaw prefects, joined them.  
  
James instructed Remus and Ali to take care of showing the first years to the common room. Dirk made a face at that, Lily noticed. He then instructed the other house prefects in the same fashion. He asked around for everyone’s opinion on when would make the best meeting times through the month to discuss Hogsmeade trips and managing detentions and such.   
  
Lily felt her cheeks flush when he glanced at her saying something about ‘and if you need any advice, on anything at all, the Head Girl and I are here to help.’  
  
Once he finished he stood and informed Lily to stay where she was, and that he’d give the same speech to the Slytherin’s and the Hufflepuff’s in the next carriage up.  
  
‘Cresswell!’ James shouted just before disappearing from sight. Lily looked over to see Cresswell retracting a hand from Adams. He had been trying to tuck her hair behind her ear, it was out today and the curls seemed to be blocking his view of her. ‘Go- patrol the train. Or something.’ James gave the younger prefect a sort of warning look as Cresswell stood, leaving Adams alone and left the carriage through the end door. James shut the door behind him rather a bit harder than need be, and proceeded to the other end to direct the rest of the prefects. Lily contemplated this reaction for a split second before something more pressing infiltrated her thought pattern.  
  
‘Who the bloody hell was that?’ Lily turned to Remus and he blinked at her.  
  
‘Dirk Cresswell? He’s the sixth year prefect?’   
  
‘Not  _him_. Mister Authority!’ Lily pointed in the opposite direction to where James had just retreated.  
  
‘Oh.’ Remus smiled, ‘James has always been a leader Lily. I thought you would have noticed that by now?’ The look he gave her made her blush. Lily knew she’d always had some kind of feelings for James Potter. Ever since her first meeting with him. He sat in the same compartment with her on their very first trip to Hogwarts. Lily had been so cross when Severus had found her, she was mopping at her eyes after Petunia had called her a freak. It was all for looking at the letter she had sent to Dumbledore asking to go to Hogwarts. Severus’s idea. When he joined her she had been covertly admiring the boys sitting across from her through her tears. They paid her no attention what-so-ever.  
  
One was very attractive, even at their age you could see it. The other one was the one that caught her eye however. Chatting loudly and making the other boy laugh. The minute he had stood up and spoken about the house he wanted to be placed in, the house where the brave of heart dwelled,  _like my dad_ , she felt a stir over those words. His confidence and his cheeky grin. When he and Sirius had made fun of Severus she immediately dived into attack mode for her friend, but that didn’t change the way she felt.  
  
At the sorting ceremony all that went through her head were thoughts of the boys on the train and his confident telling of bravery. She wanted to slap him right in the face, but she also wanted to be close to him for reasons unknown to her. When McGonagall had called her forth she took her seat and before she knew it the sorting hat was calling out Gryffindor and she made her way over to the cheering table and took up a seat by one of the boys from the compartment. Sirius had budged up for her but when she saw him she made a show of her annoyance, telling him she didn’t approve of his making fun of her friend.  
  
When McGonagall had called out ‘Potter, James!’ and the second boy from the train had run up to the stool, the sorting hat had barely touched his head before it shouted ‘Gryffindor!’ and the table erupted into cheers. Lily had joined in with a quaint little smile but when he had made his way over to join Sirius she panicked and poked her tongue out at him when he sat down.   
  
From then onwards she had always secretly admired James. He became something of a celebrity at the school along with Sirius and that brought Remus and Peter, the two others in their dorm, into the spot light too. Constantly she was bombarded with tales of his stupidity and arrogance from Severus. It annoyed her. She  _knew_  he was arrogant. He was in  _her_  house not Snape’s. She would tell Severus this constantly to which he always seemed to relax afterwards. But James Potter wasn’t always arrogant and annoying. He had his better traits, even if they were deeply buried in the beginning. She watched him enough to see them. He would taunt people and hex them and get into worlds of trouble. Filch would follow he and Sirius around like a bad smell most days. But James Potter was also much more.  
  
He hated Slytherin’s that taunted the muggle-born children. Muggle-born children  _like her_. When Mulciber had cursed her best friend it was James Potter that jumped into action and landed a hex right back at him. It was James Potter that came to the rescue of first years in need when they fell in the vanishing steps. It was James Potter that made the students laugh when they were suffering through intense study. It was James Potter that made Lily smile, even if she tried to hide it. And now it was James Potter who was her counterpart Head Boy. She heard the carriage door slide open up the other end and he marched over to them with a grin plastered on his dorky face.  
  
‘Are you alright?’ Adams asked to her right side and Lily looked over to her. ‘You’re going all red.’ She looked very confused. Lily heard Remus snigger across from her as James took a seat beside him once again. Lily let her hair fall over her face while she tried to regain some dignity.  
  
‘All done. Everyone has their tasks and it looks like Monday nights will be our best bet for meetings. I’d say we’ll get all the prefects together once a month, Evans and I will meet up more often of course.’ Lily looked up at that and James had taken his glasses off to polish the lenses.   
  
‘Uh, Marlene said she wanted to see you Remus.’ Lily choked out clearing her throat and looking anywhere but at the sight of James Potter and his dorky, stupid, adorable face.   
  
‘Ladies can’t get enough of you, hey Moony!’ James elbowed him, replacing his glasses. Remus frowned at him though he was smiling.   
  
‘I suppose I’ll go on a patrol of the train.’ Adams stood up from her seat and brushed by them, she was already in her school uniform. The girl lived for authority.   
  
‘I’d better go and say hello to Marlene.’ Remus smiled wistfully and got to his feet. Lily looked ahead at James and he wasn’t paying her much attention, just scratching the back of his hand as the Ravenclaw’s and the other Gryffindor’s chatted loudly downwind from them.  
  
‘I’ll come with you!’ Lily stood up so fast she hit her head on the ledge overhead. She heard a couple of the Ravenclaw’s laugh.  
  
‘Shut it!’ James pointed over to them in warning. ‘No one laughs at the Head Girl’s pain.’  
  
‘Give it a rest Potter.’ Lily said, rubbing her head with a wannabe-hidden smile. She followed Remus out of the carriage and they walked down the jostling train to where the girls were seated in their private compartment.  
  
‘Feeling ill, Lily?’ Lupin asked her and Lily’s head snapped towards him.  
  
‘No. Why?’  
  
‘Oh, well you just seem rather flushed and flustered.’ He nudged her with a grin as they entered the compartment and Marlene jumped up and threw Remus into a hug. He laughed, smiling at her enthusiasm and kissed her on the cheek. As they sat down together they began discussing something in hushed voices looking over at Lily. Lily glared at them and turned to Mary.  
  
‘So?’ Mary asked, ‘Who was Head Boy?’   
  
Lily sighed heavily, ‘James bleeding Potter.’ Mary lost it and within seconds the whole compartment was filled with laughter at Lily’s expense. 

*

‘What are you doing Wormtail, you have to flick it.  _Flick it_.’ Sirius instructed.  
  
‘I am bloody flicking it. Look! FLICK! FLICK!’   
  
‘Oh you’re  _useless_.’ Sirius said, exasperated. He snatched the firework off his friend and gave it a hard flick just as someone came up behind them. The firework zoomed into the carriage they were crouching outside of and screams started echoing out of it as whizzing and popping sounded, filling up the entire carriage with sparks and loud cracks.  
  
‘You little  _shits_!’ Sirius and Peter felt themselves begin tugged upwards by their shirts and once they were on their feet they turned around only to be met with the glaring form of Adams. Slytherin’s started spilling out of the carriage screaming as the firework zoomed out of control, banging and cracking while Sirius and Peter smiled back at the prefect.  
  
‘You can’t take points from us! The school year hasn’t even started yet!’ Peter piped up as they both stared at her unamused scowl. The firework gave one loud final  _crack_  but Adams didn’t move in the slightest.  
  
‘Detention. Both of you.’ Peter groaned loudly but Sirius was still smirking.  
  
‘Lovely to see you Adams.’ He smiled at her. Adams just rolled her eyes and pushed by them to inspect the damage. Sirius watched her with a grin as she marched inside, her curls bouncing around her.   
  
‘ _Lovely to see you Adams_.’ Peter teased beside him. Sirius just punched him in the arm and Peter fell up against the wall. When he looked back inside the carriage Adams had been joined by Dirk Cresswell from the opposite end. Sirius let his head droop to the side in a calculating manner as he watched them. They seemed to be discussing something and when they both turned around to look at him, Sirius waved. When Cresswell reached up and placed a hand on Adams shoulder to console her Sirius felt his upper lip twitch.   
  
He narrowed his eyes at the male prefect as he ushered Adams away to the other end of the carriage and out of sight.  
  
‘Hey! There you are!’ James sounded from behind them and joined them in the connection between the carriages. ‘What are you doing?’  
  
‘Padfoot’s making googly eyes over Adams.’ Peter snickered.  
  
‘Piss off Wormtail.’ Sirius shoved him and made off in the opposite direction to where their private compartment was waiting for them.


	32. A match made in Hogwarts

As the train arrived and the students began gushing out to get to the mysteriously drawn carriages first, Remus stood close to Marlene, blocking the fact that they were holding hands to anyone, as their robes covered them. Remus was still rather flabbergasted by the fact that he very much had a girlfriend. She gave his hand a tight squeeze before letting it go as loud laughter and emulating chatter signalled they had been joined by his group of friends. Mary ahead of them nudged Lily and began laughing as Lily started to rant to her quietly.  
  
‘You’re sure I can’t tell him?’ Remus looked down slightly to Marlene, who wasn’t much shorter than himself.  
  
‘Are you kidding? You do realise Lily is the most talented witch in our year? You think I want to answer to that?’ Marlene gave him a very quizzical look and Remus nodded trying to hide his smirk. ‘You go with them. I think they might hex me if I keep you any longer.’ She reached up and kissed him on the lips and the minute they connected Remus heard James and Sirius howling applause.  
  
‘Piss off!’ Marlene threw back at them and marched off to Lily and Mary.  
  
‘Got yourself a firecracker there, don’t ya Moony.’ James elbowed him hard and the three boys all collapsed into laughter at his expense. He just rolled his eyes as they found an empty carriage behind the one Marlene had just joined Lily and Mary in.   
  
As the boys all shouted at each other, happy to be returning to their close living arrangements, Remus sat back and felt a sense of calmness washing over him. He found his mind drifting back to the night Marlene had located him in the library a lot. It had been the most surreal experience. Remus was the type of person to distance himself from a crowd in fear of being noticed for what he was. Although it was impossible for people to do so without it being a full moon, he was constantly aware of the judgement he should receive had anyone found out.   
  
Remus Lupin never really entertained the idea of a girlfriend. He wasn’t the sort to want to actively harm someone he cared for, and he believed that thrusting his life upon someone would do just that. So when Marlene had in turn, thrust herself upon him, something that usually held him back floated away. He couldn’t explain it, but the night she had kissed him an almost animalistic instinct took over and all he wanted to do was indulge her. He caught himself mid-transition and pulled back horror-struck.  
  
When Marlene had encouraged him to continue, seeming so incredibly delighted by being close to him, a girl he had found himself thoroughly attracted to for not only her looks, but mostly her personality, he couldn’t have stopped himself for all the self-hatred in the world. He had never experienced a girl actively seeking him out before this. He had never thought it possible that someone could like him. He had argued with himself when he was alone that this was a stupid development and that he should most definitely put a stop to it. He couldn’t disregard who he was.  _What_  he was. He would only be hurting Marlene. He  _couldn’t_  hurt Marlene.   
  
But Remus was still young, and he had three close friends that all were highly aware of his secret, and accepted him. He had been accepted into Hogwarts by Dumbledore himself. He was taken care of and coddled by their matron. He had people around him that truly cared for him, and as his time at Hogwarts had ticked on he found his usual restraints towards allowing himself simple pleasures, weening. And Marlene also had a lot to do with that.  
  
Marlene had a superior attitude. She was loud and rambunctious and didn’t really take no for an answer. She was everything he was not. He’d always held her in high-regards for her optimistic attitudes even when she was doing terribly in classes. She was funny, and always had her friends laughing from what Remus saw. He gravitated towards her. He knew though, that he couldn’t keep it going forever. She was bound to get suspicious of his monthly ‘sicknesses’ after a time. He had been able to shield her from the truth so far.   
  
They had only gotten together towards the end of last term and the first transformation had been such an astronomical disaster with what happened between his friends and Snape, Marlene could have been none the wiser to the reasons for his hospital visit. He had been so depressed he had ask Madam Pomfrey to make sure no one could visit him. He had spent four days going over in his head how rash he had been and decided he was too dangerous to allow himself to see Marlene anymore.   
  
She had found him the minute he was excused from the hospital wing but he had ignored her and muttered something about being no good for her while wheeling away from her advancing hands and James, who had been escorting him in his downright  _terrible_  mood, had yelled at her to back off. Remus had felt even worse after that. He spent every waking second with his curtains drawn around his bed not knowing what to do. He found himself sinking deeper and deeper into a depression as James and Sirius fought and Peter seemed lost without the three of them.  
  
It wasn’t until nearly three weeks had passed from his close run-in with Snape that he finally found the nerve to venture down to the common room. His head was swelling with  _what ifs_. What if he’d killed Snape? What if he’d turned Snape? What if he hurt someone else? What if it was one of his friends? What if it was Marlene? He was so filled with doubt and worry. But he had climbed down to the common room, hoping he might run into Marlene. He wanted to be as far away from her as possible. But he didn’t. He didn’t want to hurt her. But he wanted to be with her. The way she laughed. The way she hugged him so tightly without holding back. The way she completely ignored his temper before the full moon. It had calmed him. He needed her almost as much as he needed his friends.  
  
As he sat thinking of the loud blonde, he hadn’t noticed Lily had come through the portrait hole. She had made her way over to him, midway through a very aggressive self-argument. It was when she had snapped at him about  _sucking his thumb_ that he sat up, mildly gravitating towards someone berating him. All he’d gotten from Madam Pomfrey was how much this was  _not his fault_. Dumbledore had dished out punishment to Sirius and Snape  _and_  James! Sirius had most certainly deserved it, Remus couldn’t argue there, but how could James and even Snape be punished for what was ultimately  _his_  fault?  
  
Her snap at him gave him the boost he needed to ask about Marlene. She gave it to him straight. When he slipped again and let loose some pathetic words of not being able to talk of his problems she had launched into some of her own, that closely resembled his. She spoke to him of her blood status and the taunting she received from it. He tried to argue that is wasn’t the same and that’s when Remus realised Lily Evans  _knew_. He froze that night in shock wondering how she might react, but she completely ignored him and continued on telling him he needed to be strong for himself. He had people around him that loved him. People that needed him just as much as he needed them, and when her words brought forth the tears he had been so desperately trying to hold back for weeks, she had pulled him into a tight hug where they sat for a long time.   
  
He wasn’t aware someone could be as kind as Lily Evans. She was a beautiful soul indeed and he was sure no other person would have been able to snap him out of his own suffocating loathing quite like she had. He felt much closer to her from then, and when Sirius had apologised, he had the fight burning inside him to accept it. Still now he was a bit warier of Sirius, but with Lily’s kind words he was able to find Marlene the next day and apologise. To which she made it incredibly easy for him.   
  
Over the holidays he was able to stop her from visiting around his transformations, putting it off to family reasons. But they had seen a fair amount of each other and Remus felt himself growing more and more attached. He didn’t want to lose her, but he couldn’t see much helping the fact if he was to turn into a blood-thirsty monster once a month, he couldn’t keep up the charade forever. He sighed heavily and felt someone punch his upper arm.  
  
‘Moody moony isn’t supposed to set in until the twenty-seventh Remus. I checked.’ Sirius was grinning at him.  
  
‘Don’t tell me your moonstration is off.’ James grabbed his knees across from him. Remus sighed loudly again but a smile crept onto his face as he stared back at them and found his worrisome thoughts drifting away while his present-self settled in with his three best friends.   
  
At the feast the girls didn’t join the boys at their usual end spot at the back of the hall. Half way through dinner Remus thought of something and looked to the far end of the table towards the staff seating and noticed Ali watching over the newly sorted first years. She wasn’t talking and looked somewhat bored and he felt a pang of guilt. Since he had been dating Marlene he had not joined his friend in the library once. She played with some of the food on her plate and didn’t realise a first year talking to her until they waved a hand in front of her.   
  
‘Ugh, I should have written to her over the holidays.’ Remus spoke to no one in particular.  
  
‘Why?’ He heard Sirius reply and when he looked over to him, Remus noticed Sirius had followed his eyes down to where Ali was sat. Sirius looked back at Remus with a quirked, calculating brow. Remus realised something and laughed at Sirius’s expense.  
  
‘Don’t worry Padfoot, I’m not moving in on your girl.’ He explained and heard James snort his pumpkin juice beside him.  
  
‘Love-Pup angry!’ James announced, banging a fist down on the table, ‘No one touch Love-Pup’s girl!’ Sirius groaned loudly and turned away from all of them as Remus, James and Peter all continued to laugh. As the feast drew to an end, Dumbledore stood to make his start of term announcements. When he announced James and Lily as Head Boy and Girl, there was a glint in his eye directed at what Remus thought was Sirius’s direction. James stood up on the table and took a bow to which he was rewarded by McGonagall yelling at him to get down.  
  
Remus stood and made his way over to Lily and Marlene and smiled down at his girlfriend from where she was still seated. He bent down and gave her a sweet kiss on her forehead and she pushed him away making a show of her dislike of public displays, but then she stood and kissed him again quickly before walking off with Mary and Lily.   
  
Remus made his way all the way to the back of the hall and stood by Ali where she was instructing the first years.  
  
‘Stop pulling her hair you little imp!’ She smacked a first year boy’s hand away from a small brunette girl who was receiving a good tug of her pigtails. ‘There’s one in every year level.’ She rolled her eyes turning to Remus.  
  
‘Follow us first years!’ Remus announced and they got on their way, out of the great hall and up to the stairs. It was of course Ali that began informing the first years of all the facts of Hogwarts. They all huddled to get close to her while she was in her element. Remus hung towards the back watching to make sure no one strayed off course. The little brunette girl was dawdling towards the end of the line and Remus came up beside her. She looked up at him and her cheeks went red as she looked down.  
  
After they made their way up many stairs, through hidden passageways behind tapestry’s and down corridors they stood out the front of the portrait of the fat lady.  
  
‘You will have to remember the password. If you forget it, you’ll be sleeping in the corridor.’ Ali smirked somewhat at that and Remus held back a laugh at the cheek he hadn’t been aware she had. She turned to the Fat Lady, ‘ _Mandragoae Clamor._ ’ The Fat Lady gave a little nod to them and swung open for the demonstration. A few of the first years clapped.   
  
Once they were inside Ali instructed the tiny students to their dorms and informed them they could stay in the common room if they chose, then turned to Remus.  
  
‘How were your holidays?’ He smiled at her as she eyed off the pigtail-pulling boy from earlier.   
  
‘Yeah, okay. My father got transferred to the department of magical law enforcement here, so we had to move. Ugh, it completely threw off my homework schedule, you know?’ She shook her head and turned her attention back to Remus.  
  
‘Oh, where was your Dad working before?’ Remus asked feeling slightly bad that he had never asked such a question.  
  
‘Oh, he was in the accidental magical reversal squad, overseeing all of the liaisons between here and Australia after a dragon killed a bunch of kangaroos over there in front of a town of muggles. But Minister Minchum reckons he needs him to lead one of the departments in magical law enforcement now. Ah, what was it? Investigation department? Something like that. Have you ever moved house? It’s  _horrible_.’ She sounded exasperated. Remus knew of moving house  _all_  too well. His father and mother had moved him around so often as a child once people started cottoning on to his monthly transitions that moving became second nature to him. But that wasn’t what caught his attention.  
  
‘You lived in another  _country_?’ How had this not come up in conversation?  
  
‘Uh, yeah.’ Ali blinked at him.  
  
‘But I thought you couldn’t come to Hogwarts unless you were from Britain or Ireland?’ Remus asked thinking about it.  
  
‘Oh, you can’t.’ Ali agreed, ‘But my parents are quite close with Dumbledore, so they asked him to make an exception.’ Remus had to smile at that. He felt slightly more connected to the younger girl, knowing that there had also been an exception made for his arrival at the school.    
  
‘Where did you move to?’ He asked as they took up two seats close to the lingering first years.  
  
‘Just some little wizarding town in Devon. My grandparents insisted we be close by. I haven’t been able to escape my crazy Oma for weeks.’ Her face told a story of its own and Remus shared a laugh with her. They spoke for a while longer, catching up somewhat. She seemed a bit more relaxed than she used to be as she explained some of her past to him. He began to put a few things together as she spoke. She had grown up in a country away from her entire family with only her mother and father for company. This explained her lack of social skills, Remus thought.   
  
It wasn’t until all the first years had found their way up their staircases and into their dorms that Marlene appeared at the bottom of the girl’s stairs. She made her way over to them and sat down on the arm of Remus’s chair.  
  
‘You look pretty tonight Adams.’ She spoke and Ali furrowed her brow in what looked like pain.  
  
‘Please don’t say anything about my being pretty. I’ve had it all summer. My Oma thinks I should pose for Witch Weekly.’ She sighed letting her head fall and Marlene and Remus laughed together. When Ali stood and bid them a pleasant goodnight saying she still wanted to proofread all her holiday homework before handing it in tomorrow, Marlene slipped into Remus’s lap once she was gone.  
  
‘She’s a bit funny, Adams.’ Marlene watched her climb the stairs after locating a fluffy white cat.  
  
‘She’s alright when you get to know her.’ Remus defended light-heartedly. Marlene surveyed him with a penetrating stare for a moment but then smiled.  
  
‘Well, aren’t you just the sweetest father-figure.’ She pulled his head down to hers and captured his lips. Remus felt no complaint. He kissed her back as she coiled her arms up around him and readjusted herself to fit better against his chest. Remus enjoyed kissing Marlene about as much as he enjoyed Hogwarts. It was so comforting to him to have someone so close to him that wanted to be there.   
  
As she pressed herself harder against him and deepened the kiss, Remus felt the need to push her back.  
  
‘Marlene.’ He tested, giving her a knowing look, ‘no.’   
  
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about Remus.’ She smirked at him as she propped herself up, putting a leg to either side of his lap and straddling him on the couch. She reached her hands out and placed them on his chest and he went ridged. ‘I’m not doing anything-‘ they travelled down and his breath caught when they reached the belt of his uniform, ‘-wrong.’ She fluttered her lashes at him and Remus swallowed hard.  
  
‘I told you, not yet.’ And with that he reached out and pulled her into himself stopping her wandering hands. He rested his head against her shoulder and laid a kiss against her neck. He felt her relax and kissed her again. And again, trailing up to her jaw. ‘You don’t have to rush into anything.’ He breathed hot against her neck then pulled back to look up at her face. Her eyes were shut and her mouth open slightly, enjoying the attention she was receiving.   
  
When the lips stopped meeting her skin she looked down at him and gave him a wicked smirk and ground her lower body hard against his and he choked somewhat as she kissed his cheek and stood up. Remus had to quickly cover his lap with a nearby cushion.  
  
‘ _I_  want to rush. It’s  _you_  we’re not rushing.’ She winked at him and made her way back over to the stairs and disappeared. Remus looked around and a few of the stragglers still left in the common room were staring at him, trying not to laugh. He felt his cheeks heat up and he stood, taking the cushion with him.  
  
When he was outside of his dorm, he could hear Peter and Sirius yelling something to each other inside and he tried to think of very un-Marlene-rubbing-herself-against-him thoughts. Nothing was really helping though until he heard Peter yell ‘Stop talking about my mum in a two piece!’ and Remus was definitely subdued by that. Mrs Pettigrew wasn’t something anyone should want to imagine in a beach apparel. But he sighed knowing he couldn’t hold off much longer with Marlene.   
  
She wasn’t the type of girl that teetered around the idea of sex. But not only was Remus nervous somewhat, having never had sex before, knowing Marlene certainly had. He didn’t like the idea of sleeping with a girl he couldn’t see himself staying with. He wanted to stay with her, he truly did. But he wasn’t sure he could punish her like that. He’d come to care for her too much. He decided to leave the deep thoughts behind and entered his dorm. James was laying back on his bed, looking quite content and carefree. Sirius was hovering around Peter’s bed prodding at him and laughing loudly while Peter smacked at his hand with a frown.  
  
‘Get busy with McKinnon’s yet Moony?’ Sirius asked when he noticed Remus stroll in. Remus quickly tossed the cushion aside, starting the mess their dormitory would undoubtedly be in within a few weeks’ time.  
  
‘What? Are you hoping for some pointers for your dismal love-life Padfoot?’ Remus quipped and James flung up from his relaxed state, laughing. Sirius pouted pathetically and marched over to his bed and threw the curtains around.  
  
‘You’re all a lot of jerks.’ He spat and Peter and James roared with laughter from their beds.  
  
‘Stop being dramatic Sirius.’ Remus smiled, unbuttoning his school shirt and looking forward to a nice long sleep surrounded by his best friends again. 


	33. Sirius's morning tempers

The first Saturday of term Ali found herself up very early and in the prefect’s bathroom tending to her hair. She looped each curl around her finger and tamed them all separately. She had figured out long ago how to get them all to sit right. She had her uniform on, even though it was the weekend, as she had a detention to supervise. Already. Term had started two days ago. She sighed. Giving herself a little leeway however, she left her hair out. With a smile back at her completed and proper reflection she left and made her way back upstairs. In her dorm all the girls were sleeping. Thankfully. She stowed her things away and went downstairs to meet Peter and Sirius.   
  
She waited for five minutes before James came skipping down the stairs in his quidditch uniform. He smiled at her brightly and made his way over. She sized him up appraisingly but gave him a smile as he approached. He just seemed so happy this term, she couldn’t stop herself.  
  
‘Morning Potter.’ She gave him a warning look when he got too close and he seemed to refrain from throwing her into one his infamous side hugs.   
  
‘Brightest of mornings to you Adams. Where are you off to?’   
  
‘Waiting for your idiot friends. They have detention this morning. Doesn’t quidditch start in week two?’ She crossed her arms over her chest as he rocked back on his feet.  
  
‘Yeah, but I’m team captain so I want to get in early with the players we still have. Make sure they haven’t slacked off over the holidays.’ Ali had to smile at that. She imagined if she were into sports, she probably would have had the same views. ‘Oh, and I wouldn’t bet on them being down any time soon. I expect Pete is having trouble with Sirius.’  
  
‘What do you mean?’ Her smile died and was replaced with confusion.  
  
‘Uh, well. Sirius is kind of hard to deal with in the mornings. He-‘ James stopped dead and a wicked smirk formed on his face. Ali became wary and leant back from him. ‘Adams, why don’t you go make sure he’s up? He can’t be late to detention. That’s rather rude if you ask me.’  
  
‘Well Sirius Black is nothing if not rude.’ Ali rolled her eyes. ‘But I suppose you have a point.’ And with that she walked away towards the boys stairs. She  _had_  already been waiting five minutes. She’d never been up to the boys' dorms before and so she stopped at the bottom. James was right beside her now. ‘Weren’t you going somewhere?’ She asked James but he was grinning like a fool.  
  
‘Oh, it can wait.’ He walked ahead of her and she followed him up the stairs with a shrug. James entered the dorm first and she heard Peter speak.  
  
‘Can’t get him up for the bleeding life of me, he’s being ridiculous! Say it’s a Saturday and-’ But Peter pulled up short when Ali strode in behind James.  
  
‘Well I’ve located some outside help.’ James sat down on his bed and Ali saw Peter clap a hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing. Ali looked around the dorm, it was a lot messier than she could have imagined a dorm being after two days. She looked between the two furthest beds inside. One was a mass of blankets that were breathing. She looked right and Sirius Black was sprawled out in nothing but his pants, all his blankets and sheets were kicked off around the bed.   
  
She froze for a second seeing that much of his creamy skin exposed. But she put on a brave face and marched over to the bed, folded her arms over her chest, and kicked the mattress. ‘Get up Black!’ She snapped and he opened one eye blearily. Soon after, the second one opened and for a moment he stared at her as if trying to figure something out. Then he smirked.  
  
‘Morning Adams.’ He croaked in a rather husky voice that made Ali’s face twitch as he propped himself up on his elbows. Ali drew in a hitched breath as her eyes wandered down his front and her breathing became more laboured when she traced the outline of each seemingly chiselled muscle down his front, stopping at his waist. To break herself out of her stupor she kicked the bed again.  
  
‘Get up!’ She repeated and he glared at her for a moment, then lay back down.  
  
‘Why don’t you join me? It’s a Saturday, come cuddle and get warm.’ As he finished his sentence he laughed silently but Ali’s jaw had squared and her nostrils flared. She raised her leg again, held onto one of the posters of the bed and started kicking the mattress furiously until Sirius was jostled enough he toppled over the other side.  
  
‘Downstairs in five minutes you stupid moron!’ When she looked up, Remus was now poking his head out from under his blankets and trying to focus on her, but his eyes were heavy with sleep. Ali turned and stomped out of the room and when she shut the door behind her she heard the room erupt into laughter.   
  
She tapped her foot, waiting for them in the common room. Within a few minutes time Peter had joined her still laughing quietly.   
  
‘What’s so  _funny_?’ She snapped at him.  
  
‘Oh, nothing.’ He replied, sobering, as Sirius came down the stairs sounding like a small dragon.   
  
‘This is a  _rubbish_  way to spend a Saturday Adams!’ He announced striding over to them in casual clothing like Peter, ‘we should be sleeping in-‘ he narrowed his eyes at her with a grin, ‘-maybe even together. Then after waking up around noon we should be eating some bacon and doing the crossword. I need to teach you about Saturdays.’ He finished but the minute he had, he screeched out in pain after Ali had landed a swift kick to his left shin.   
  
‘Serves you right.’ She smirked as Peter started laughing again beside her.  
  
‘Oh Padfoot, good  _luck_  there.’ He shook his head and followed off behind the younger prefect, dabbing at his eyes.  
  
As they settled into the dungeon classroom, and Sirius and Peter got to work with some of the tubeworms stuck to the desks, Ali had taken out her copy of  _A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration_  and was going over the spell work with a tense frown. She was determined to bump up her grade in transfiguration at the very least now that she had dropped divinations. She tried to ignore the conversation coming from the boys.  
  
‘What are you looking at Padfoot?’ Peter asked and snickered.  
  
‘Shut up Wormtail. Or I’ll write to your mum and ask her about her swimsuit collection.’  
  
‘Stop talking about my Mum!’  
  
‘Would you both shut up?! This is a detention not a bloody speakeasy!’ She snapped looking over her book in annoyance. Once they were quiet she refocused on the book and didn’t realise how intense her face had gotten looking down at the course work. All their spells had to be performed non-verbally from sixth year onwards and she hadn’t perfect the verbal parts of transfiguration yet. She wasn’t sure how she was going to improve her grade. She let out yet another exasperated sigh.  
  
‘Having trouble with transfiguration Adams?’ Peter asked with a quaint smile. Ali watched him over the book for a moment waiting for some kind of innuendo, but it didn’t come.  
  
‘No. Uh, no? Well, not  _really_. I got an O in my written, but I only got an A in my practical. I want to get a perfect score for my NEWT levels though.’ She shrugged looking back to her book.  
  
‘You know, Sirius got an O in both of them. I bet he could give you some pointers.’ Peter suggested giving Sirius a sideways glance.   
  
‘I don’t need any help from snotty bludger. His speech of “I pay attention in class” has been well established.’ Ali pushed out snippily and huffed at the memory.  
  
‘I could help you? If you wanted?’ Sirius spoke up causing Ali to look up from her book yet again. She looked at the two boys. They had both stopped scraping off the tubeworms and were watching her. She wasn’t overly fond of their stares.   
  
Screwing up her face she replied, ‘whatever. I suppose it couldn’t hurt. But stop bloody yapping and clean the desks already.’ As she looked back to her book, she missed Peter giving Sirius a thumbs up and Sirius rolling his eyes in return. 

*

In the seventh year girls dorm upstairs all five of the occupants were present. Lily was still wrapped in her blankets, and Mary had joined her under her covers, giggling at Marlene who was sitting at the end of the bed whispering as their other dorm mates were still sleeping.  
  
‘Do you have any idea how frustrating it is? I just want him to rip my clothes off, but no, he’s the perfect damn gentlemen isn’t he?’ Marlene was getting progressively louder as Mary and Lily tried to keep their giggles at a reasonable level.  
  
‘Poor Lupin.’ Mary looked sideways at Lily, ‘he’s going to get mauled.’  
  
‘Didn’t know what he was signing up for, did he?’ Lily held a hand over her mouth.  
  
‘Well, he should have!’ Marlene half whispered, half yelled. She crossed her arms over her chest and lay back against one of the posters of Lily’s bed.  
  
‘But anyway,’ she continued, ‘what’s going on with you and Potter? I’m positive if you two started dating you could skip all the fluffing around and jump straight into the good parts. There’s like, what? Two years of serious sexual tension built up between you? You could probably bang without dating.’  
  
‘Oh my god Marlene, shut up!’ Lily said, but she was laughing. Mary pushed Lily’s pillow and gave a little jostle in the bed from excitement.  
  
‘Come on. I’m living through the two of you! Get with him already. He’s cute.’ Mary complained.  
  
‘Why don’t  _you_  get with him then?’ Lily pouted feebly, propping her head up on her hand. Mary turned to Marlene, who was already looking at her with a knowing look and the two girls started giggling at each other.  
  
‘Your retorts are getting weaker and weaker, Lily.’ Marlene said through her laughter. ‘You two stay here a minute, I’ll be right back.’ And with that she got down silently from the bed and tip-toed out. Mary yawned and pulled Lily’s covers up just under her chin.  
  
‘Why are we up so early again?’ She asked wiping at the tears forming from her yawn.  
  
‘Because miss raunchy wanted to complain about not getting a chance to be raunchy.’ Lily yawned also following suit after Mary. But she wasn’t tired at all. She was very much awake.  
  
‘Well, wake me up when they’ve done it on the sofa.’ Mary curled up and shut her eyes, but Lily smiled and got out of the bed as quietly as she could. She pulled off her pyjamas and found a plain white t-shirt and a pair of jeans and walked over to the mirror Mary brought with her from home and examined her face. Her skin was clear and her hair was barely tousled from sleep. She decided that when Marlene got back she’d drag her down to breakfast and let Mary sleep a little longer.  
  
As she pulled a brush through the few parts needing attention of her dark red hair, Marlene slipped back in and tip-toed over to her.  
  
‘You, come on. You have somewhere to be.’ She yanked her away from the mirror, chucking the brush onto her own bed to avoid hitting Mary and they were in the common room in no time.  
  
‘Breakfast?’ Lily asked finally, hoping Marlene had had the same idea she had.  
  
‘No. The quidditch pitch. Go and support Potter.’ Marlene smirked.  
  
‘What? No. Why the hell would I do that?’  
  
‘Because you’re in love with the guy Lily. Stop being a stubborn little brat. Remus is alone up there, so I’m spending the morning with him.  _You_  go and work on your Potter-problem.’ And with that she pushed her out of the portrait hole and laughed as she retreated back inside.  
  
Outside the portrait hole Lily just stared unamused at the fat lady as she swung shut. The fat lady gave her a quelling look like she did not approve of being judged so early on a Saturday and so Lily turned around and decided to get something to eat, alone. Once she made it down to the doors of the great hall she stopped. She looked over at the entrance hall exit and contemplated her options.  
  
She could pop inside, grab some toast, and then eat it watching them. That would make sense? She was bored and it was entertaining watching quidditch, even if it was only practice. And she couldn’t deny that James Potter in his quidditch uniform could make the strongest of wills disintegrate. So she ducked inside the great hall, grabbed her toast and spread some raspberry jam on it and left the castle with a smile.  
  
As she neared the pitch she could hear James’ voice barking around the stadium. When she walked out onto the field, she could see the remaining players from last year all hovering a few feet above the ground.  
  
‘No Aswad, you need to be more agile. If there’s a bludger flying towards her, I want you there covering her within the second. Davies is our most important player, I don’t want anything happening to her this season!’ James directed towards the two team beaters.  
  
Their team seeker Erin Davies caught Lily’s eye and she waved over at Lily, ‘Hey Evans!’  
  
As Lily waved back, taking a bite out of her second piece of toast, she watched in almost slow motion as James hand slipped on his broom and it flipped around and he dropped to the ground with a loud thump. Lily dropped her toast and made for James at a run.  
  
‘Potter! Potter are you okay?’ The rest of the team landed neatly and crowded around them where Lily had gotten to her knees beside James who was flat on his back staring up at the overcast skies overhead. Her hair fell all around her as she pulled her hands up to James face and inspected his expression. His confused features slowly turned into a smile as he focused his eyes behind his glasses on Lily.  
  
‘Alright there Evans?’ He gave her a full-blown James Potter grin and she smacked him.  
  
‘You had me worried you git!’ But James pulled a hand up to place his over the one she had rested on his chest and he just smiled at her. For a moment it felt like the rest of the quidditch team had disappeared while they stared at each other.  
  
‘Guess this means practice is over?’ Came a voice from behind her and Lily felt her cheeks burn.  
  
‘You bloody wish Aswad!’ James retorted and gave Lily’s hand a squeeze before sitting up. ‘Back on your brooms you slackers! Laps!’ He shouted pointing around at them, but still keeping Lily’s hand in his left one.  
  
‘Don’t you think you’re being a little hard on them Potter?’ Lily asked, trying to ignore the feeling in the pit of her stomach over her hand being held so tightly by the messy-haired boy.  
  
‘Want to win the cup again this year Evans. Can’t slack off now.’ He replied turning back to her. They were closer in proximity than they had ever been before. Lily felt her breathing quicken. Before she could register what was happening James had stood, and was pulling her up by their entwined hands and then he placed a kiss to her knuckles.  
  
‘Come down to support us then Evans?’ He asked, letting her hand free and Lily was instantly saddened by the loss of contact.  
  
‘Well, I needed somewhere to eat my toast. Marlene’s upstairs molesting Remus and Mary’s asleep.’ She said rather quickly and James pursed his lips, trying not to smile.  
  
‘Where’s your toast then?’  
  
‘I dropped it when you fell off your broom Mister-I’m-so-good-at-quidditch.’ She defended feeling heat rise to her cheeks again in embarrassment.   
  
‘Well, I suppose you’ll have to get breakfast with us when we’ve finished up here then?’ He winked at her and picked up his broom. He mounted it and shot off from the ground and Lily felt her heart flutter in her chest. She found herself a seat in the stands where a few of the other team member’s friends had gathered. She watched them for over two hours as James ran them through difficult plays and techniques he’d come up with over the summer.   
  
She couldn’t stop smiling as she watched him directing the team around. It was the most attractive thing she’d ever seen. She was sure that if he’d looked over at her once during the training session, she would have been caught looking like a fanatical girl at the world cup. She tried desperately to hide her smiles but they just kept coming straight back. She watched James closely. The way he handled himself on his broom made her bite her bottom lip.  
  
By the time James seemed to be dismissing them, and the players all landed on the ground, Lily was quite hungry. Did she dare go alone to breakfast with James Potter? She decided while she was making her way down to the pitch that if the whole team was going, it wasn’t that bad. When she got down to the grass however, the whole team had disappeared and James was the only one left on the pitch. He smiled over at her.  
  
‘Just ducking into the changing rooms and have a quick shower,’ he told her with a smile that made him look even dorkier than usual. ‘Uh,  _did_  you want to come to breakfast with us? You can come wait inside?’  
  
Lily’s stubborn resolve with dissolving. She didn’t dare smile as she replied though. ‘Uh, sure. I mean if the whole team is in there? I, you know, supporting the team. I’m Head Girl after all. Just, you know, trying to- uh, support- you all...’ She stumbled over her words as she reached him.  
  
‘Oh yeah, course.’ James nodded and motioned her to follow him to the changing rooms. He sat her down near the broom racks and disappeared off to the showers. Lily twiddled her thumbs and started looking around feeling like an idiot. What was she  _doing_? Supporting the team? What rubbish. Surely he saw right through that. She brought a thumb up to her mouth and started to chew on her nail. It was a habit she’d long ago dealt with, it only reared its ugly head when she was particularly nervous over something.   
  
‘Bye Evans!’ The sixth year beater, Nay Aswad waved to her arm in arm with the fourth year chaser Amelia Harris. He was followed by his two sixth year friends Adam King, one of the chasers and John Wright, the second team beater. She waved back to the four of them with a smile.  
  
‘See ya Evans!’ Erin Davies waved to Lily as she left the showers in casual dress. She had been one of the first years Lily had shown around the castle on her first year as prefect and had always been rather fond of her since. Lily waved to her with a bright smile, forgetting about biting her nail. But after she left Lily realised she had been the last of the team in there besides James since their keeper Sam Oldham had graduated last year.  
  
Now she felt completely stupid. She should have gone with the team as they had been passing her. Why was she waiting for Potter? This wasn’t like her. She had to come up with an excuse or leave before he made it out. She panicked and stood up but just as she did, James came around the corner in a Tornadoes jumper and jeans, his hair still wet from his shower. Lily gulped.  
  
James looked just as nervous as she did and his hand went straight to his hair as he approached her.  
  
‘Uh, so, up to breakfast then?’ He looked up to the ceiling smiling.  
  
‘Uh, yeah. I- well- we should go over some Head stuff? Don’t you think?’ She scratched the back of her neck, but when she focused her attention back on him, he had a stupid grin fixed on his lips from her words.  
  
‘Get your mind out of the gutter Potter!’ She smacked him and he just started laughing. She joined in and he offered her to walk along first and they started back up to the castle.  
  
‘How did the rest of your holidays go?’ James asked as they walked.  
  
‘Not bad actually. My sister’s been in a better mood with me, I think her and her boyfriend are getting pretty serious.’ Lily replied happily. Petunia hadn’t called her a freak the whole last month of their summer break.  
  
‘Do you- uh, like her boyfriend?’  
  
‘He’s okay. Bit stiff. But I mean, he’s very polite to all of us. So I can’t complain.’ She shrugged as they made their way inside and over to the great hall. ‘You-‘ Lily stopped herself, wondering if she really wanted to ask this question. They sat down at the breakfast table at a free space and James looked at her expectantly. She decided she may as well. ‘You never wrote to me.’  
  
James face went slightly pink and he quickly pulled off his glasses and busied himself with cleaning them for a moment. Lily felt like an idiot. She shouldn’t have asked. How desperate could you  _get_? She wanted to hit herself. But then James cleared his throat and replaced his lenses.  
  
‘Uh, I- uh-‘ he took a deep breath, ‘I actually did. I- I just- I couldn’t send them. They sounded  _stupid_.’ He sounded somewhat exasperated with himself.  
  
‘ _Them_?’ Lily asked, smiling at him. James’s eyes went wide and he became overly involved in gathering things around the table for breakfast. Lily’s heart skipped a beat but she didn’t press the matter as James seemed to have grown shy for the first time in his life. Instead she asked him about the quidditch plays and whether or not he thought they would be effective against Slytherin and James seemed to relax and launched into a lot of quidditch talk and Lily listened happily as they ate.


	34. Somebody for my wand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning; This chapter is pure crack. I take no responsibility for loss of control and falling from chairs or small amounts of wee from laughter. It will also help if you open a new tab, get somebody to love by queen up on the you tubes and play it at the opportune moment. I obviously do not own anything. I am a simple hobo with a laptop. Happy crack adventures!

Ali was trying her upmost to keep her daily routine as it had always been. Early to rise and early to breakfast, to avoid the chatter. Always very involved in her classes, answering every question and being awarded with more house points than anyone else in her year. Keeping a sharp eye out between classes for trouble makers. Spending her breaks hidden in the library at her usual table right up the very back, studying. Making it down to dinner as late as possible, in the hopes to navigate her way around her dorm mate’s schedules. She had a very defined routine which she had established well through her first and second years at Hogwarts. It worked  _well_  for her. Or, it used to.   
  
Throughout fifth year there had been a few instances that seemed to gain her unmerited attention. Mostly at the hands of Sirius Black and James Potter, the obnoxious twins. But since the start of her sixth year, it had been none other than Remus Lupin dragging her into the spotlight against her will.  
  
‘There you are!’ Remus gave her an exuberant yet merciless look as he advanced on her after classes in the library.  
  
‘What do you want  _now_?’ She clung to her desk, rooting herself to the spot as he grabbed her robes and tugged.  
  
‘Come on, you can’t sit in here alone every night. Come down to dinner with us.’  
  
‘No!’  
  
‘Ali, come on!’  
  
‘My books!’  
  
‘They’ll be here when you get back. Who’s going to take them?’  
  
‘Thieves!’  
  
‘No one wants your books Ali!’  
  
‘Let me go!’  
  
‘You’re coming to dinner!’  
  
‘NO!’ She clutched the desk as hard as she could as Remus wrapped his arms around her waist and pried her from it. ‘Remus! I don’t  _want_ to eat with your gang!’  
  
‘Nonsense. You need to hang around people more than books  _sometimes_  Ali.’ He argued, dragging her from the library.  
  
‘No! Books don’t tease me.’ She wailed watching as the walls of books disappeared. Remus held onto her as she relented and began walking with him down the stairs.  
  
‘No one teases you.’ Remus shook his head at her.  
  
‘Says you.’ Ali pouted childishly thinking of Sirius Black and his constant bantering. He was insufferable! She thought after last term, when he had been so easy to mould and tame to her will through their long weeks of detention, that he would be less of a chore to be around. But he was back in full force this year.   
  
‘Who teases you? Honestly, tell me. I’ll make quick work of them myself.’ Remus gave her the sweetest smile, it almost stopped her dead in her tracks. She couldn’t be angry or deny him if she tried.  
  
‘Who do you  _think_? Your stupid, twinkle-eyed, fairy-faced, imp of a friend  **Sirius Black**! He’s so  _annoying_! All he ever does is make fun of me. I can’t bloody escape him this year. It’s been two weeks and I’m about ready to transfer to beauxbatons!’ She stomped down the last of the stairs and scowled at a passing third year Ravenclaw boy who raised a brow at her questioningly. She glared at him until he looked away and took the stairs at a bit of a run.   
  
‘I don’t think he’s trying to tease you.’ Remus looked like he was trying not to laugh. Ali crossed her arms and stopped out the front of the great hall, wanting nothing more than to return back to her books.   
  
‘Hey Adams!’ Peter’s voice came from behind them as he ran over. Ali looked down at his chubby, happy face and felt her resolve cracking somewhat. Peter was among the trouble makers, but he had always been mostly pleasant.   
  
‘Hi Pettigrew.’ She pushed out and Remus smiled beside her and ushered her through the double doors. Once inside she relaxed somewhat when she saw that it was just Marlene waiting for them. She grinned over at Ali and the three of them took seats. Remus went around to sit with Marlene which left Ali and Peter opposite them.  
  
‘How is sixth year going so far?’ Peter asked her with a light expression, reaching out for some roast beef.  
  
‘Not too bad actually.’ Ali shrugged, ‘Just trying to get the hang of non-verbal spells at the moment.’  
  
‘Yeah, they’re tough at first. But even I can do them now. So you won’t have any trouble.’ Peter nodded. Ali frowned at him, disliking his obvious lack of self-respect.  
  
‘Where’s stupid and stupider?’ She asked scanning the table for the two missing aspects of the troublesome party. Marlene laughed at her while scooping up roast potatoes to add to Remus’s plate for him.  
  
‘Probably causing some kind of devastation.’ She replied. Ali looked down the table again and noticed Lily and Mary chatting with their other two dorm mates about midway along. A bit further down were Ali’s own dorm mates and she blanched dramatically at the sight of them. The beginning of sixth year hadn’t been the start of a beautiful budding relationship with them, that much was certain. Although, the most tolerable one, Emily, seemed to be staring at Lily and Mary with a smile.  
  
‘Potter is Head Boy now. He shouldn’t be breaking school rules.’ Ali added returning to their conversation.  
  
‘Lighten up Ali.’ Marlene touched her hand over the table and gave her a small grin and Ali suddenly felt silly for a moment.   
  
‘How’s your transfiguration course work going?’ Peter turned to her and asked. She felt her disposition lighten even further. When they weren’t causing trouble, she found Peter and Remus to be some of the easiest boys to be around.   
  
‘Uh, still could use some work. I’m absolute  _rubbish_  at the non-verbal stuff.’ She sighed heavily thinking of the first ever time a teacher had told her off for her technique two days prior. McGonagall had caught her speaking the incantation under her breath and Ali felt instantly sick, seeing the stern look of disapproval she earned. She really needed to bump herself up before she got on McGonagall’s bad side. She could  _not_  be on  _any_  teacher’s bad side. It was just an unacceptable prospect.   
  
‘You’re having trouble with transfiguration?’ Remus asked across from them, he seemed to be looking up to the entrance a fair amount.  
  
‘No.’ Ali bit out.   
  
‘No, she just wants to ace her NEWTs.’ Peter spoke for her and Ali had to smile. He was quite nice, Peter. Timid, but nice.  
  
‘You should get Sirius to help you.’ Remus was grinning at her and Ali noticed Marlene quirk an eyebrow at him, halfway through a bite of potatoes.  
  
She swallowed, ‘As if Sirius would help  _anyone_  with their homework. Are you two talking about the same guy? He’s about five ten, dreamy hair, real talent for trouble? Doesn’t give two lick about anyone that doesn’t sleep in a dorm with him?’  
  
‘You forgot rude, obnoxious, conceited and just plain unbearable.’ Ali added in a monotone with a bland look on her face as she recalled some of their fleeting run in’s this term and Marlene started laughing at her.  
  
‘Ali, you’re funnier than I thought you were.’ She added and Ali felt her cheeks warm slightly at that. She didn’t mind being called funny. In fact, she quite liked it.  
  
‘Sirius already said he’d help her.’ Peter spoke up and as Marlene and Ali turned to him, they saw Peter and Remus share a look before glancing back to the hall doors again.   
  
It wasn’t until she was halfway through her plate that a hand was placed on her shoulder and she turned around to be met with their headmaster.  
  
‘It’s lovely to see you down to dinner so early Aaliyah.’ His bright blue eyes twinkled at her.  
  
‘Evening Professor.’ She supplied back but as soon as Dumbledore had passed she turned to Remus. ‘He’s up to something.’  
  
‘What?’ Remus looked slightly comical. His face was twitching, trying not to smile and Ali flung out a finger and her jaw dropped.  
  
‘You’re up to something! What’s going on! Inform me immediately!’ But before Remus had a chance to deny anything, the great hall door banged opened and none other than James Potter and Sirius Black strode in, followed by the entirety of the school choir.   
  
James was holding his wand like a microphone up to his mouth and Sirius was behind him with a bewitched record player in his arms while the school choir all formed a rumbling harmony behind them.   
  
‘Caaaaaaaan?’ James started in a long, drawn out, terribly sounding note. The choir then joined in behind him.  
  
‘Aaaaanyyyyyybooooddyyyyyy? Fiiiiinddd meeeeeee? Someboodyyyy for myyyyy- waaaand?’ The whole attention of the hall had turned to the boys as James had bewitched his voice to boom out around the hall. Sirius quickly passed Ali and the others and pushed someone aside further down from the Gryffindor table. He placed the bewitched record player down as the tune began to play he jumped up onto the table and grabbed James’ hand, flinging him aboard also.   
  
‘Each morning in my dorm I die a little! Can barely get to my feet!’ James trod over the variety of foods still covering the table, kicking platters out of the way and spraying students with food as he continued on with his rendition. The choir all followed James and Sirius’s lead and flooded into the hall around the Gryffindor table. Ali felt her eye twitch as his song continued on and she looked down to where Lily was sitting with Mary. Her mouth hung agape as James stopped before her.  
  
‘Can anyyyyboooodyyyyy?!’ He continued on with the backup of the choir, ‘Fiiinddd meeeeee, SOMEBODY FOR MY WAND!’ He screamed out stamping around high on the table before Lily. As he continued to sing the choir all gathered close around the part of the table Lily was sitting.   
  
Ali’s eyes darted away from the scene and up to the staff table where Dumbledore was waving his index fingers around like a conductor, while McGonagall beside him seemed to be distraught. Ali felt a smile tug strangely at her lips with all the commotion. She looked back to James, he was still belting out his serenade, now accompanied with thrusting dance moves as he kicked out all around him. Beside him Sirius was dramatically playing an invisible piano, flicking his hair back and forth.  
  
‘He works hard!’ The choir sung out, ‘Everyday! He tries and he tries and he triiiiiiies!’  
  
‘But eeeeeevery time she turns me down and tells me that I’ve gone craaaaazyyyyyyyy!’ He pointed down to Lily moving his hips around and dancing nothing short of  _terribly_  atop the table. Ali looked down to Lily who now had her hands clapped over her face and was shaking with laughter. She looked back to James and Sirius, Sirius was now taking part in what looked like a violent display of the air guitar. He got down to his knees, still playing and the hall was laughing loudly, clapping their approval.  
  
‘I just gotta get her to understand, some day we’re gonna make three!’ He pointed down at Lily again who now looked to be going rather pink in the face as she was laughing so hard.  
  
‘Find  _me_  somebody _f’my_  wand! Find  _me_  somebody  _f’my_  wand!’ The choir began chanting in rounds to either side of the table. Ali stood up now with Peter to get a better look. Sirius started clapping over his head looking around at everyone and the entire hall began to copy his actions and soon the sound was rattling all the goblets and cutlery on the tables. Ali couldn’t stop herself from smiling. This was the funniest thing the boys had done yet. She wanted to be angry, to tell them off… but she also wanted to see how it played out.  
  
James thrust a hand out to Lily, at first she pushed it away as he howled into his wand, but as he did it for a second time, singing out the chorus of his song on his own, she took his hand. He pulled her up on the table and began singing around her, stomping on food and dancing around like a moron. The choir and James all revved up high until they broke out into one final call of ‘somebody f’myyyyyyyyy-‘ and James got to his knee and held Lily’s hand in his, giving it a singular kiss to the knuckles, ‘waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand!’ and the choir and music continued on with the ending of the song while James stared up at Lily.  
  
As the song finished the entire hall went deadly quiet.  
  
‘So? What do you say Evans? Will you go out with me?’ James asked, still booming into his wand. Ali looked up to Lily who was staring down at James completely dumbstruck.   
  
There was an eerie silence all around the hall, as everyone held their breath.   
  
‘Oh my god,  _fine_  Potter! I’ll go on a date with you, you bloody dork!’ She lifted her free hand up to cover her face as the entire hall erupted into applause. Dumbledore stood up from his chair joining in the clapping and Ali noticed that the rest of the staff table did also. All beside McGonagall.  
  
‘Potter! Black!’ She called out in a dark fury. James kissed Lily’s free hand once more before Sirius grabbed him, and they ran down the opposite end of the table as the choir broke back into the chorus of the song. Sirius and James stopped at the end where Ali sat and as they jumped down, Sirius winked at Aaliyah.  
  
McGonagall ran out from behind the staff table hushing the choir and yelling at them to go to her office before she was out the door in pursuit of James and Sirius.   
  
Ali looked across the table, her jaw hanging. ‘What the bloody hell was  _that_?’  
  
Remus looked particularly amused, but it was nothing compared to Marlene. ‘That was James’ final attempt at winning Lily Evans’ heart.’ Remus tried to keep himself steady as Marlene clutched onto him, howling with laughter.  
  
‘I love them! I absolutely love them!’ She cried out as the hall broke into loud conversations all around as the choir made their way from the hall, humming still. Ali rolled her eyes at Marlene’s comment. She already had Remus. She couldn’t love  _everyone_.   
  
Peter grabbed her arm beside her, waking her from her very suddenly peeved mood.   
  
‘Did you like the song? It’s a muggle song. Moony and I picked it for him.’ Peter looked very pleased with himself.  
  
‘You  _helped_  with this? Don’t tell McGonagall that. She looked livid.’ Ali said watching as the last of the choir trailed from the hall.  
  
‘James is a very theatrical type. He wouldn’t hear of simply taking Lily aside and asking her nicely. Seemed to think he had a better chance of her agreeing if there were a few people around to see it.’ Remus spoke, looking down the table to where Lily was trying to tidy up. She seemed to be apologising to a lot of the people with food on their person. Mary was beside herself with laughter.  
  
‘Yes. The entire school is a few people.’ Ali rolled her eyes. But suddenly had a smile on her face once more thinking of everything that had just transpired. When she looked down at Lily, she seemed to be deep in conversation with Mary, touching her cheeks and ears which were both bright red.  
  
Suddenly Ali felt a certain longing, but quickly shook her head and the feeling away. She listened to Peter as he retold the plan of the event for both her and Marlene’s benefit. The boys never made it down to dinner. Ali expected that McGonagall had given them some kind of food, much less appetising than their usual dinners, and hold them up in her office as punishment for the destruction they had caused.  
  
After they all finished their dinners and some desserts, Lily and Mary came over to join Marlene.  
  
‘I cannot  _believe_ him.’ Lily said but her face completely betrayed her words. She was smiling like a fool and Ali narrowed her eyes watching her as she stood behind Peter, looking over at Marlene. ‘I could kill him.’  
  
‘Shove off, you loved it. Look at your face, you’re beaming.’ Marlene spoke Ali’s thoughts and she found herself smiling at the blonde again. Smiling, frowning, and then smiling again. Why was she so up and down with Marlene? She didn’t bother getting into it though and listened to their conversation instead.  
  
‘You can’t prove anything.’ Lily smirked.  
  
‘Are you guys coming up to the common room now? I expect the boys are with McGonagall getting a good talking to still.’ Mary said as she looked back down the table to where there was still food marring a lot of the surface. She smiled somewhat sheepishly.   
  
Ali looked down and saw her dorm mates all poking at the mess, Bianca and Anna both seemingly discussing very important and scowl worthy topics. Ali still wanted to avoid them.  
  
‘Uh, I think I might go back to the library actually. My books  _are_  still there.’ As Ali spoke the words she fixed Remus with a glare and he merely smiled back, ignoring her obvious annoyance with him.  
  
‘Well, come join us up there afterwards. I quite like you Adams.’ Marlene winked at her as she stood and came around to join Lily and Mary. The girls left first.  
  
‘Did you want some company?’ Peter asked, standing also.  
  
‘Oh, no. I’ll be right.’ Ali waved Peter and Remus off and was on her way. Once she made it to the third floor and into the library she stood in front of her desk and counted the books sprawled out where she had left them, to make sure none were missing. She blinked in confusion because, instead of less than five books, there were now six.  
  
She sat down at her table and picked up the book she knew not to be her own. It was much smaller than her usual heavy texts. It was a small, paperback novel. Something she knew to be fiction. Fiction was usually something she didn’t waste her time on. There were of course many written works of fiction in the magical world. But fiction wasn’t something Ali thought to be instructive or useful and so she veered away from it.   
  
But as she picked up the cover and flipped it over to read the back she furrowed her brows questioningly. It was a  _romance_  novel. She drew it at arm’s length and screwed her face up. She looked around her perimeter to see who was close by and might have been the owner. But the library was deserted. It was the beginning of term, and it never started filling up until homework started piling up for the less organised.  
  
After the display in the hall however, she found herself somewhat curious. She felt very shady as she checked her surroundings for a second time and took a seat. She read the back of the book and it told of forbidden love and young romance. She flipped the cover open and found the writing to be tolerable. Before she knew it she was eight chapters in and rather attached to the main character. When someone walked by, she hid the book from sight. That’s when she decided to gather up her things and take the strangely acquired book back up to her dorm where she would draw her curtains and read it in secret with only Snowball for company. He wouldn’t judge her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the choir was introduced in the world of the movies, but eh, it worked. Sue me. You all know James Potter would be the most theatrical twat alive! ..please don't actually sue me I'm a very poor uni student.


	35. Lily Evans, Head Girl and all around bombshell

Lily Evans was  _frustrated_. It had been three full days since Sirius and James had conducted their ridiculous scene in the great hall. Three  _full_  days since she had finally broken down her stubbornly built walls and decided to say yes to James Potter’s dating request.  _Three full days_  and she had barely seen or heard from him!  
  
When he and Sirius finally made it back into the common room the night of, James had drawn to a stop in front of her. He tipped an invisible hat and then walked off with Sirius, and Remus and Peter had followed suit. The next day all four of the boys had been absent. As it was a Saturday Lily thought she might have been forced to see him in some kind of manner. But, nothing. Then on Sunday, she was  _sure_ that James would have sought her out. Remus had found Marlene and the two of them had gone down to the grounds together, wrapped up in scarves. Marlene had even stolen one of Remus’s well-worn-in beanies and Lily felt her heart swell when she watched the two of them touch their noses together after Marlene shoved it on her head against Remus’ wishes down in the common room.   
  
It was now Tuesday and they were all filing up outside their ancient runes classroom waiting for Professor Babbling. She had seen James in classes yesterday with Sirius, Peter and Remus as always. But he hadn’t approached her at all. She looked around for him now, but he seemed to be missing. Strangely enough, however, Sirius and Remus turned up together, without James or Peter. She pushed through her classmates and came up to them, seemingly tiring of being ignored, Mary close behind her.  
  
‘Hey, where is he?’ She snipped at them, tiring of the air of mystery surrounding the newly appointed Head Boy.  
  
‘Why, whoever are you talking about Evans?’ Sirius waggled his dark brows at her and she shoved him.  
  
‘He had quidditch trials to run yesterday Lily. A few of the new players requested he run them through drills in the mornings seeing as they don’t have long before their Slytherin match now.’ Remus answered her.  
  
‘Are you, perhaps, lusting after  _my_  prince, Evans?’ Sirius gave her a mocking gasp, ‘I will let you know that I saw him first.’  
  
Lily glared at him and Sirius straightened up with a laugh, holding his hands up in front of him in resignation. Boring of the taunting, he fell back against the wall with a smirk and Lily turned to Remus.  
  
‘Where’s Pettigrew?’ She felt less stupid asking after both of them.  
  
‘He dropped the class. He only  _barely_  made the OWL for it. He didn’t want to run the risk of flunking the NEWT.’ Remus explained.  
  
‘He’s going to flunk everything else.’ Sirius shrugged casually against the wall. Then Professor Babbling turned up and began ushering them inside. As they entered, Sirius and Remus made their way towards the back of the room taking up seats together and saving another for James. Lily took a seat a few rows forward with Mary and huffed.  
  
‘What’s wrong?’ Mary asked her, taking out her runes dictionary.   
  
‘Stupid Potter.’ She muttered as more of an exasperated annoyance than a real reply.   
  
‘There he is.’ Mary said, and Lily looked up to see James running in, flicking his hair about as it was still dripping wet. He looked around the class and jogged over to Remus and Sirius and took up a seat with them. Lily watched as he raked a hand through his wet hair, trying furiously to rid it of as much water as he could. She hadn’t realised she was holding her breath as he did this and when he looked over to her, Lily turned around so quickly she threw her bag from her desk.  
  
‘Sorry, sorry!’ She apologised to Professor Babbling, who had to stop her first sentence and the entire class watched as she picked up her things and returned to her desk, cheeks burning red. She didn’t look back to the boys again for fear of making a fool of herself twice. By the end of class she packed up her things and when she finally decided it would be okay to look around, all three of the boys had already left. She swore.  
  
‘Are you alright?’ Mary asked with a very questioning expression.   
  
‘I’m  _fine_!’ She replied throwing her bag over her head and leaving the room with Mary. Was she alright? This wasn’t normal behaviour. She wasn’t a moody girl. She certainly never took banter or abuse lying down but she was never usually this on edge.   
  
‘Why hasn’t he tried to sort out a date with me?’ Lily whispered as they walked along to their next class. Mary giggled at her.  
  
‘You’re angry he’s not making a fuss over you?’ She inquired.  
  
‘Mary,’ Lily warned giving her a stern look, ‘of  _course_  I am.’ She exasperated as they made their way down the many stairs and corridors towards the dungeons. Mary started laughing at her frankness.  
  
‘Don’t sweat it, Lil. He  _will_  come after you. You just need to play it cool. Don’t- uh- drop your bag when he looks at you again.’ She tried not to laugh as Lily glared at her and they entered their potions classroom.  
  
‘Good  _morning_  Lily!’ Slughorn beamed at her as she entered and Lily felt her miffed attitude ebb. ‘Uh, McMillain.’ He nodded at Mary, who rolled her eyes as he turned away. Mary made her way inside to join Marlene who was already there as it was her first class of the morning. Lily looked around slightly confused as none of the Gryffindor boys were in class yet.  
  
‘Lily, I’m having a start of term catch up. I’d love for you to join?’ Slughorn asked, noting she was still lingering. Lily turned to him with a bright smile.  
  
‘Of course, Professor. I’d be delighted.’   
  
‘Brilliant! This Saturday night. Still so proud about your appointment of Head Girl. Such a talented student Lily, one of my brightest. Still stand by my words, you should have been in Slytherin.’   
  
‘Oh Sir, you know it was for the best that I was placed in Gryffindor. Had to give them some pride. Slytherin can’t snake  _all_ the talent.’ She winked at him and Slughorn clapped her on the shoulder with a delighted laugh, and she made a move to join Mary and Marlene. Before she took her seat she noticed the boys enter. The three of them were laughing loudly, and James pushed Sirius making him stumble slightly but Sirius caught himself and continued on to their desks.  
  
‘Potter hasn’t spoken to her since his serenade.’ Mary whispered to Marlene as Lily sat beside her.  
  
‘Bit sour are we Lil’?’ Marlene asked.  
  
‘What? No. Screw Potter. Who needs him?’ She defended setting up her equipment and trying to ignore her need to look around to James again.   
  
‘Don’t worry Lily. He’s crazy about you.’ Marlene nudged her.  
  
Lily huffed, ‘Well not as crazy as he is about his boyfriends.’ As the words left her mouth even she was surprised by them. She clapped a hand over her lips and looked to Mary and Marlene.  
  
‘Are you  _jealous_  of Black and Remus?’ Marlene looked like she had just been given the juiciest gossip of all time and Mary was yet again, trying her best not to laugh at her best friends overzealous emotions. Lily didn’t answer. She just began busying herself with her potions work. By the end of class Lily had been paying more attention to the argument she was having with herself than her potion, and the draught was thin and watery instead of the thick consistency the book had explained it should be.  
  
‘Uh, Lily?’ Slughorn looked very confused as he looked down at the watery concoction. ‘Are you perhaps feeling a little off weather?’ This certainly wasn’t what he expected from one of his most prized students.   
  
Lily sighed, ‘Yes. I think I am.’ As she replied she looked over to James who was splatting something disgusting down on the desk in front of Remus, who was making a face. Sirius was howling with laughter at them.  
  
‘I see.’ Slughorn nodded as he followed her line of vision. ‘Love does funny things to us Lily. You mustn’t let it get you down.’ He pat her shoulder sympathetically and Lily felt herself going bright red at the mention of love. As Slughorn left both Mary and Marlene couldn’t hold themselves back and repeated his last sentence in their best impersonation of him and cracked into a fit, hugging each other.    
  
By the next day Lily was livid and after classes she sat in the common room with her eye on the portrait hole backing, drawing up timetabling for the prefects for the rounds for next week. She found it very curious when Adams came to sit by her.  
  
‘Is that the patrols for next week?’ She asked, hugging her lazy cat. His grumpy face turned to look at Lily.  
  
‘Yeah.’ She replied shortly, but then inwardly admonished herself for it. ‘Sorry. Head’s in another place.’ Lily explained, but it seemed that Ali had barely registered her voice. She was looking at the timetable.   
  
‘It’s strange to see you in here.’ Lily continued, watching as the cat sprawled out on its back in its owners' lap. It was a very curious thing for a cat to do.  
  
‘Hm, yeah. Just trying to avoid the flower power gang upstairs.’ She replied absently, stroking Snowball. She then smiled up at Lily. ‘They’re currently working on their divinations homework together and it gets rather tedious listening to them talk about their love lives for four hours. You’d think palmistry would get boring after a year, but no.’   
  
‘You really got the raw end of the deal with those girls. That Cox is a piece of work.’ Lily turned her nose up at the thought of the sixth year bully.  
  
‘Cocky is a handful, but I try not to dwell on it. How're Head duties going? Is Potter keeping up?’ Lily felt the side of her mouth twitch at Ali’s question. For a split-second she’d almost forgotten all about him.  
  
‘He’s a little  _busy_  with quidditch at the moment.’ Lily bit out. ‘Or whatever it is they’re up to.’  
  
‘Don’t worry. I’ve been keeping an eye on them. They don’t seem to be up to anything drastic. Haven’t even had to give them a detention since the train.’   
  
‘You really keep tabs on them don’t you Adams?’  
  
‘Well, it used to be really entertaining giving them detentions. They always seemed so defeated. But lately, I feel like Black is getting caught on purpose. Merlin only knows why. He just bloody smiles at me, it’s infuriating.’ At this she stroked the cat a little too hard and he began pawing at her to stop.  
  
‘Maybe he likes you?’ Lily suggested in a humoured expression, watching the cat.  
  
‘I- what?’ When Lily looked away from Snowball and up to Adams her face was mortified. But then it visibly relaxed. ‘I don’t think so. Remus told me that Dirk Cresswell seemed to have a crush on me, and the way he acts around me is far different from Black.’  
  
‘Cresswell is cute.’ Lily was enjoying this. It was taking her mind off Potter for a change. ‘Why don’t you go on a date with him? I’m thinking of organising a Hogsmeade trip for the weekend of Halloween.’  
  
Ali was looking at her with an expression of confusion and abhorrence, ‘he’s very boring. I don’t think I could stand another long-winded conversation about his self-taught fluency in gobbledegook. Honestly, who wants to speak Goblin?’  
  
‘I think that’s amazing. He taught  _himself_  gobbledegook? He’s smarter than I realised.’ Lily sized up his capabilities in her head and sighed, ‘I mean, it would be nice to have a boy dote on you, wouldn’t it? Kiss your hand, take you out to lunch or something?’ She placed her hand under her chin thoughtfully as the fire crackled beyond them.    
  
‘You know, a few days ago I probably would have turned my nose up at that and called you an idiot… but, it does sound kind of nice.’ When Lily looked back at Ali she had a serene, light expression on her face that Lily hadn’t seen her wear before. Lily smiled.  
  
‘It does. Do it, if he really likes you, he’ll pamper you. It would be a treat.’  
  
‘Well, uh, how do you go about that? Do I ask him?’  
  
‘Oh. Well, I suppose you could. It’s not against the law.’ Lily shrugged, ‘but I think he should probably ask you. I could help?’  
  
‘Ugh, this is degrading. I feel like an idiot just talking about it.’ Ali sighed, pulling snowball up to her chest and burying her face in his fur. Lily watched as her curls splayed out around her and the cat. Then the portrait hole opened and the low chatter around the room was disrupted by loud laughter.  
  
‘Wormtail if you got any stupider, you’d be expelled, honestly!’ Sirius' voice broke through the laughter.   
  
‘Shut up Padfoot.’ Peter replied angrily. Both James and Remus were laughing still as they climbed through last. Lily forgot to reply to Ali as she observed them. Remus looked over at them and smiled, making his way over. Lily froze as the other boys followed his lead.  
  
‘Hey, you.’ Remus reached out and ruffled up Ali’s hair once he was close enough and stood behind her chair. ‘Is that next week’s patrols?’ He asked glancing over at Lily.  
  
‘Yeah.’ Ali replied for her as Lily’s attention was fixed on James and Sirius who were arm-in-arm coming to a stop behind Remus.  
  
‘How do you guys  _do_  this stuff?’ Peter screwed up his face coming around to sit next to Lily.  
  
‘It’s called putting one foot in front of the other, Pettigrew. You know, walking?’ Lily looked sideways at him and laughter came from their right side. Peter looked less than impressed.   
  
‘Oh Wormtail, she got you good.’ James said through his laughter and Lily’s face twitched.  
  
‘And  _you_.’ Lily stood up in one swift movement, whirling around to come face to face with James. His eyes widened fretfully behind his glasses and Lily had the sudden urge to rip them off his face. ‘Who do you think you  _are_? Making a scene in front of the entire school to coerce me into saying yes to you!’ She poked a finger hard into his chest and he took a step back as she advanced.  
  
‘And then what!? You just suddenly lose the urge to be anywhere near me? What? The chase is over, so now you’re bored? Is that it? You don’t just ask a girl out and then IGNORE HER WHEN SHE FINALLY SAYS YES YOU STUPID, PIG-HEADED, POMPAS GIT!’ James was definitely going to have a bruise on his solar plexus from how viciously Lily’s finger was striking him. He looked slightly winded when she finally stopped and they had moved at least ten feet from the lounges.   
  
‘Lily, I-‘ James looked around at the occupants of the common room. Everyone was staring at them. Remus and Sirius were still behind Adams chair, Adams had peered around it with Remus’s hand still rested on her head, and Peter had propped himself up to look over the back of the couch to see them better. James grabbed Lily’s still raised hand and pulled her off towards the portrait hole and through to the other side.  
  
‘ _Awkward_.’ Ali sang and returned to patting Snowball as Remus and Sirius chuckled.  
  
‘Do you want to perhaps calm down there whirlwind?’ James asked now outside the common room with a still furious looking Lily.  
  
‘Do you maybe want to explain your behaviour?’ She stood up tall and crossed her arms over her chest.  
  
James froze. He looked around the corridor but it was deserted. His hand went straight for his hair and he looked down to the ground for a moment.  
  
‘Uh, well. Well, I just- I didn’t think you’d want me in your face. You know, I kind of get on your nerves a lot.’ He finished, looking everywhere but at her face.  
  
‘Potter! I said yes to you, didn’t I? A yes  _means_  yes! You don’t just ditch me after that!’ Lily was still furious, but the way James was messing up his hair and looking everywhere but in her eyes was making her temper drop.  
  
‘Well, I didn’t think you’d want to go on a first date at the  _school_.’ James looked her in the eyes now. ‘I wanted to make it special.’ He was most certainly blushing now. Lily’s lips pursed together and her rage subsided completely.  
  
‘I don’t  _care_  if we go on a date somewhere around the school you idiot. I just want to  _go_  on a date.’ As Lily finished her sentence James fixed his gaze on her and his face slowly broke into a happy smile. Lily’s own face screwed up as she tried desperately not to smile in return. She failed.  
  
‘Well, how about Saturday then? I’ll organise something? How flexible are you with school rules?’ There was a wicked glint in his eye and Lily shrugged.  
  
‘I’m Head Girl, Potter. School rules don’t apply to me.’ Before she had a chance to say anything else James reached out and grabbed one of her hands and pulled it up to his mouth, pressing a sweet kiss to her knuckles.  
  
‘It’s a date then.’ And with that, he turned to the fat lady and gave her the password, and clambered inside almost tripping over himself. Lily waited a few seconds, savouring the sweet interaction. She needed to compose herself before stepping inside. When she did, she heard James’ voice over all the others.  
  
‘She said yes! She said yes!’ James cried happily. When Lily looked over to them, Remus had taken up Lily's old seat beside Peter and Sirius seemed to be annoying Adams from behind her chair because she was swatting his hands away from her hair looking incredibly agile and ready to attack.  
  
‘We  _know_  Prongs.’ All three of the boys replied as James fell against the couch. Sirius's hand descended on Ali's hair once again, mussing it up and suddenly Snowball was on the floor and Ali was on her feet. She swiftly punched Sirius in the chest, huffed a breath as he fell backwards, and left the couches muttering about palmistry being better than pests. Remus, James and Peter all cracked into a fit of laughter as Lily decided to find Mary and Marlene to tell them the news.


	36. The Three Broomsticks

‘I’m making some changes to the map.’ Sirius announced leaning over their map with James beside him on his bed. James was watching carelessly as the snitch he’d stolen back in fifth year fluttered around the bed posts.  
  
‘Changes? Like what?’ Peter asked picking up socks and things from around his corner. The dorm was already back to its usual state only three weeks into the school year.  
  
‘Fine tuning. I suppose we won’t need it after we leave at the end of the school year. So I want to make sure whoever finds it, can use it if they’re worthy. You know?’  
  
‘Worthy?’ Remus asked from his position, laying belly-up on his bed with his hands behind his head.  
  
‘Yeah. Like, pranksters?’ James added, knowing exactly where Sirius was coming from. He reached out and seized the snitch as it got closer and pocketed it.  
  
‘Nice one James!’ Peter marvelled.  
  
‘Ugh, pathetic.’ Sirius rolled his eyes. ‘Anyway! I want to make sure the map goes to someone who it will aid in bringing more grey hair to McGoogles.’ Sirius had a very sly look flash onto his face and Peter stifled a laugh over his side of the room despite being called pathetic only moments before.  
  
‘So, what changes?’ Remus inquired.  
  
‘I want to make sure whoever gets their hands on it, we lead them out of the castle. Any way possible. Make sure all the secret passage ways show them exactly how to get out through them on the map. Can’t have all our hard work of finding them in our first few years go to waste. We must pass this knowledge on to the next generation.’  
  
‘You don’t want to, you know, keep it for one of your kids?’ Remus sat up now to look over at Sirius and James. Sirius made a face at that.  
  
‘We won’t have kids for  _ages_  Moony. And who’s to say which of our kids gets it? The map needs to be harnessed by someone as soon as possible.’  
  
‘As you so desire, Senior Undersecretary. Motion approved.’  
  
‘Thank you for your authorization, Minister.’ Sirius bowed to Remus who chuckled and lay back down. As Sirius opened the map up fully and started whispering to James the boys all relaxed in the room together for a while.  
  
‘Hey. It’s a Friday night and I do believe Rosmerta is missing us.’ Sirius exclaimed as darkness began to descend on the grounds outside their dorm window.  
  
‘Count me out. I’m going to see Ali in the library at six thirty.’ Remus sat up and leant over his bed and began collecting up the books closest to him.  
  
‘It’s a  _Friday night_  Moony and that’s how you want to spend it?’ Sirius observed Remus from his own bed until Remus looked over at him with a grin.  
  
‘Would you like to join me Padfoot? I mean, she doesn’t immediately gag at the sight of you anymore. Your young romance is  _budding_.’  
  
Sirius rolled his eyes as James sniggered beside him, ‘Shut up, you mangy werewolf. Come on guys, let’s leave mister playboy to his women.’  
  
‘Don’t sulk now!’ Remus called out as Sirius left the dormitory, taking the map and pulling a jacket on over his jumper. James and Peter weren’t far behind.   
  
‘You don’t think Rosmerta will tell on us one of these days, do you Padfoot?’ Peter asked, pulling up to his right side as James stepped in line with his left once they were freed from the confines of the stairs.  
  
‘She never has in the past.’ Sirius shrugged.  
  
‘She’s really fond of Padfoot. I think she enjoys it when we visit.’ James spoke up, elbowing Sirius with a shrewd grin.   
  
‘Yeah. But she’s not five six and bossy. So she doesn’t fit his dating criteria.’ Peter’s snide comment caused James to laugh and Sirius to roll his eyes uninterestedly.  
  
‘You guys really need to get over this hey. I’m not about to get sappy-eyed and stupid over a girl. Unlike  _some_.’ Sirius finished, staring directly at James as they pushed opened the portrait hole.  
  
‘She said she _wanted_  to go on a date with me. It paid off. You’re no closer to getting a girl than you are to getting that bike you bought to fly.’ James turned his nose up as they stepped outside the common room and made their way down the corridor to the stairs.   
  
‘Hey. It’ll  _fly._  Mark my words deery.’ Sirius retorted but gave James a smile afterwards and James hooked an arm around his neck.  
  
‘Oh Rosmerta! Get ready for us! We’re coming for you honey!’ James sang out and the three of them burst into laughter as they made their way down to the fourth floor, checking the map for prefects and Filch, where they would make their escape through the secret passage behind a large mirror.   
  
Once they had clambered inside and decided to race each other to the end, all three were panting as they popped out near a back alley close to the three broomsticks.  
  
‘I- won.’ James stood up as his breathing eased first. Sirius was holding his side with a stitch and Peter was red in the face, having made it out very much last and taking in heaving breaths to stop himself from collapsing.   
  
They made their way over to the pub once Peter’s attack had subsided and James burst through the door first with Sirius ambling along behind and Peter still breathing heavily.   
  
‘ROSY! Honey!’ James sang skipping over to the barmaid. ‘Have you missed us!?’  
  
‘Boys!’ Rosmerta turned around from where she was collecting up glasses. The bar was quite full. ‘Oh, you three shouldn’t be here. You know that.’ She gave them a warning look, but it softened immediately as Sirius stepped into view and gave her a warm smile.  
  
‘Good evening Rosmerta, my dear.’ He bowed his head as Peter came up beside him, 'you look absolutely charming tonight. Have you perhaps done something different with your hair?' Sirius Black knew exactly how to turn on the charm. He was of course brought up in a sophisticated household and taught manners from age zero. He reached out and brought Rosmerta's hand up to his lips and placed a delicate kiss on her knuckles.  
  
‘Oh, come on then. Have a seat and I’ll grab you some butterbeers.’ Rosmerta looked to be positively beaming.   
  
‘Start a tab!’ James called out as she made her way behind the bar, an arm full of glasses and even more levitating behind her.   
  
‘We’re of age now. We can have something stronger than butterbeers.’ Peter harrumphed and took up a stool at the bar beside James.   
  
‘Ease into it Pete. We’re not all bottomless tankards.’ James nudged him and Rosmerta came over with three foaming mugs of butterbeer.  
  
‘Thank you Rosy! How’s your night been?’ James asked pleasantly, watching the middle-aged wizard to their right throw back a bright red shot of something and then burp fire.  
  
‘Well business is certainly picking up with this war going on. Seeing as this is the only all wizarding community, I think people assume it’s safer here if they want to venture out.’ Rosmerta replied, snatching the shot glass away from the swaying wizard and shaking her head at him as he settled his head down onto his forearms on the counter.  
  
‘Oh, don't concern yourself with the war Rosy. You’re far too beautiful to be in any danger.’ Sirius winked at her and Rosmerta giggled. Someone called out to her and she waved them off with a “be right back” and went off to serve.  
  
‘Chug?’ Sirius looked down the bar at James and Peter and they both beamed at the competition. They raised their glasses and on Sirius’s signal began gulping down the drinks as fast as they could. Peter finished first and smashed his glass down in a show of victory.   
  
Sirius finished soon after and James drew his mug away with a few dregs left at the bottom.  
  
‘Another please Rosmerta!’ Peter called over to her politely.  
  
‘How do you do it Wormtail?’ James asked finishing off his last gulp.  
  
‘Padding.’ He patted his front and both Sirius and James cracked up into laughter as Rosmerta placed three more mugs down. As the night progressed, Peter had downed nearly double the drinks that the boys had and they had all progressed from butterbeers to red currant rum’s.  
  
James and Sirius were hanging off one another while Peter was only showing himself to be ever so slightly tipsy, by his eyes drooping.  
  
‘Rosy! Come! Come si’ wiv us!’ Sirius waved her over as his usual calm demeanour was all but forgotten in the mess of so much alcohol.  
  
‘You three best be getting off soon. What will the school think with its Head Boy missing?’ She said but she was gleaming down at them with a very amused look.  
  
‘Oh, it’s okay. They love us.’ James waved it off, ‘everyone loves us. We’re a barrel full o’ fun.’ He rested his head down on the bar and stared up at her with an inebriated smile.  
  
‘Oh I bet they do. How’s your struggle with the redhead going?’ She asked, resting up against the other side of the bar.  
  
‘Oh  _Rosy_. Miracles happen.’ James shut his eyes and drooped his head towards where Sirius was leaning beside him.  
  
‘Evey said  _yez_.’ Sirius spoke for him, smiling lopsidedly and ending the sentence with a little round of applause.  
  
‘Hey! That was  _my_  news to tell!’ James sat up and tried to stare angrily at Sirius. But he couldn’t focus on which one to stare at. There were currently three of them. He squinted as his glasses slipped down to the end of his nose and his vision became even worse as he peered over them.  
  
‘Boys, come on. No more drinks for you.’ Rosmerta shook her head at them, smiling as she came around the bar.  
  
‘Rosy. Rosy.’ Sirius beckoned her over. ‘Woujou-' He hiccoughed. ‘Woujou-' And again. He then threw an arm around her, staggering off his stool. ‘Woujou thin’ I’m a ca’sh?’   
  
Rosmerta giggled and looked over at James and Peter, ‘What’s he on about?’  
  
‘He wants a little confidence boost.’ James smirked, ‘he’s having a little trouble in the lady department at the moment.’  
  
‘Oh Sirius. Don’t be silly, you’re handsome as they come.’ She helped him gain a better footing and he smiled airily at her.   
  
‘Love ya, Rosy.’ And he placed a kiss on her cheek.   
  
‘All right, that’s enough!’ James stood up and caught Sirius as Rosmerta giggled touching her cheek. ‘Let’s get you to bed.’ James motioned to Peter who plopped down from his stool and came around to Sirius’s other side.  
  
‘Thanks Rosmerta. We’ll come again soon.’ Peter nodded to her as she waved goodbye to them. As they fell out the doors and started up the street to the alley they intended to return to, Sirius struggled against them.  
  
‘I c’n  _walk_.’ Sirius was possibly the worst at handling his alcohol. He was only outdone by Remus, who always turned into a foghorn when he allowed himself to indulge far enough. Which usually wasn’t as often as the others. Sirius always lost him ability to form words properly and apparently his ability at putting one foot in front of the other. His foot caught on a stray rock and he fell face first into the pavement.   
  
James and Peter, still both rightly inebriated, just cracked into a fit of laughter. James doubled over grabbing his knees and Peter pointed at Sirius as he groaned into the floor.  
  
‘Padfoot! Padfoot! I bet you five galleons you can’t transform whilst this drunk.’ James knelt down beside him, turning him over.  
  
‘Can- too.’ He glared up at the sky holding his chest from the pain of his hiccoughs, ‘I’m tha  _dog staaaaaaaa_.’ He announced loudly as Peter sat down beside them they all laughed in the middle of the street at his declaration. Sirius took a deep breath and his face went tense and ridged.  
  
‘How’d ya chan’e aga’n?’ He looked up at James who was still laughing at him. He tried to focus on his best friend but as he was shaking violently with laughter it was making Sirius feel rather queasy. Then the sky started spinning around and around in circles and he sat himself up before he vomited. He made a few grunting noises then began undressing himself.  
  
‘Not here!’ James tried to keep his best friends jacket on and stood up, pulling Sirius along with him.  
  
Once they were in the back alley and close to the secret passage way behind a dumpster, Sirius threw his jacket off while Peter and James laughed at him. Peter began collecting up the trail of clothes he left, snorting at his friend’s intoxication.   
  
‘ _And_  he’s naked.’ James was shaking his head as Sirius stood stark naked in the alley with a face of deep concentration. It took him nearly five minutes to figure out what he was doing as James and Peter snickered behind him.   
  
Finally he began to transform into his dog form and James applauded. Peter would have, but he was a little too preoccupied with Sirius’s clothing. James ran on ahead and led the dog back to the secret passage and all three of them climbed inside. Sirius was even swaying in his animagus form tonight, which was saying something.  
  
They tried desperately to muffle their laughter on the journey back but it was hard to do when Sirius kept cocking his leg on things, and falling over his front legs. James was close to hysterics.  
  
‘We- we have to show Moony!’ Peter declared as he pulled their map out of Sirius’s jacket pocket and tapped it, saying the chosen words.  
  
‘Are we safe? Can’t have anyone see him like this.’ James asked getting down and holding onto Sirius.  
  
‘Uh, yeah. Filch is in his office with his cat. Must be feeding her.’ Peter scanned for prefects. ‘It’s pretty late. I don’t even think there are any prefects on patrol.’ Peter folded up the map and James pushed the back of the mirror open. He was yanked through with Sirius and they fell into a heap together. Peter just stepped over them and kept an eye out.   
  
‘Come on!’ Peter urged them, and James lifted Sirius up by the scruff of his neck and they tried their best to keep quiet. When they got to the staircase, Sirius barked and James turned around to shush him, and pushed him up first. Sirius slipped and crashed back into James and he and Peter clapped hands over their mouths to muffle their laughter.  
  
‘Get a move on!’ James whispered to Sirius and pushed him up again. They finally made it to the portrait and the fat lady was snoozing. Sirius barked at her.  
  
‘My word! N-no dogs in the castle!’ She reprimanded them, waking up with a start. James just provided her with the password and she swung open with a glare.  James climbed in first to make sure the common room was empty. Thankfully it was and he reached over and pulled Sirius in.   
  
Sirius made a dash for the stairs and knocked a chair over in the process, causing a clatter.  
  
‘Shh!’ Peter came in last and pushed James to get Sirius. This wasn’t the greatest idea as James stumbled forward and pulled Peter along with him and they both ended up in a pile a few feet away from Sirius.   
  
Suddenly, Sirius was human again. He was green in the face when he sat up and very much naked. He made a gagging noise and both Peter and James froze, wide eyed, watching him.  
  
‘He’s going to blow!’ James whispered and they heard footsteps coming down the stairs. James quickly grabbed an item of Sirius’s clothing from the pile splayed out around them and chucked it, landing it just over his lap as Sirius dry retched again.  
  
‘What is going  _on_  down here?’ Adams appeared at the bottom of the girls’ stairs in a silky pink dressing gown and her eyes went wide at the sight before her. She quickly averted her eyes from Sirius and focused on James.  
  
‘Why is he naked!?’ She kept her voice low but there was a very urgent tone in it. Sirius heaved again.  
  
‘He’s going to, any minute. I told him red currant rum didn’t agree with him any better than firewhisky.’ James shrugged and started chuckling again as Sirius fell down, flat on his back.  
  
‘You’re head boy Potter! What is this?’ Ali hurried over to him and helped both James and Peter to their feet. When she turned back to Sirius he was holding his hands up over his eyes and groaning.  
  
‘Ma’e the room sto’ goin’ roun’ roun’.’ He whimpered and James and Peter just hugged each other while bursting into laughter at their friend’s terrible wording.   
  
‘A lot of good you two are!’ Ali pushed them and James fell over again, bringing Peter down with him and they both continued to laugh from the floor. Ali heaved a sigh. This wasn’t something to go to McGonagall with. Her houses newly appointed Head Boy, drunk. She didn’t think McGonagall would take too kindly to seeing Sirius Black with nothing but a jumper to cover his shame.  
  
‘Why?’ She shook her head, ‘Why did I choose  _tonight_  to stay up reading?’ She watched as Peter got to his feet. ‘Help me with this one. Then take him upstairs, and- make it quiet! I don’t want anyone else seeing this. The shame of Gryffindor you lot are!’ She huffed making her way over to Sirius.  
  
He had a very distraught look on his face, laying on his back. Ali glowered at him. She knelt down beside him as she heard James and Peter muttering behind her. But then suddenly she heard their footfalls not leading over to her, but heading in the opposite direction.  
  
‘Good luck Adams!’ Peter whispered and when she looked over to them, they were disappearing up the stairs, James’s arm over Peter, holding him steady.  
  
‘Is this a  _joke_?’ She tried to call after them. They just left her. The colour drained from her face when Sirius groaned again.  
  
‘Wz it keep spin’n?’ He heaved again and Ali sat him up. She didn’t want him choking on his own vomit.   
  
‘Some friends you have Black.’ She sighed. She reached down to his waist and manoeuvred his jumper so it was covering his lower half better and gulped as he rested his weight on her back. She felt herself getting all hot and flustered and she wasn’t entire aware of the cause. The book she had been reading upstairs had been none other than the one she’d found in the library a week prior. She was reading it for the second time. It was the most disgusting book she’d ever come across. And she was even more disgusted with how much she loved it.  
  
She tied the arms of Sirius’s jumper behind his back and shuffled away from him carefully on her knees. Sirius swayed dangerously so she caught him by the shoulders.  
  
‘Can you even stand up, you stupid drunk?’ She asked. As he registered her voice he opened his eyes and squinted at her.  
  
‘Yeah.’ He pushed out defiantly and then hiccoughed. Ali felt her lips tugging into a smile very much against her will. Sirius Black was a pathetic drunk.  
  
‘Come on then.’ She stood up and held both her hands out for him. He paused for a moment and then placed both his hands in her own and Ali felt herself swallow hard as she helped him to his feet, hand in hand. As he got to his full height, he stood a fair amount taller than her and swayed until she came to his side and pulled one of his arms around her shoulder.  
  
‘This way.’ She commanded him and Sirius walked along with her to the entrance to boy’s bathrooms over near their dorm staircase. As they made it inside she found herself to be going bright red when she looked in the mirror and saw them standing in such close proximity, with Sirius’s bare backside in view.   
  
She looked away from the mirrors quickly and started breathing feverishly. She helped him over to one of the shower stalls, hoping a bit of cold water would do him some good. She backed him in slowly and he nearly tripped but once inside his back hit the side of the stall and he slid down its length until he was comfortably on the floor. Ali’s eyes darted all around the large bathroom and wondered what to do next.  
  
‘D-do you want the water on?’ She asked as her eyes travelled down to him and she held her breath when they rested on his bare chest. She recovered though when he heaved again and she went into distress mode and flew out of the stall and looked around for a bucket. She located one under the basins and ran back over to him. She rested the old wooden bucket in his lap just in time and stepped out of the stall as he violently threw up into it.   
  
She dry heaved from the noise and stepped out of the bathroom, running up to her dorm. She tip-toed inside and found her wand on her nightstand and Snowball stirred behind her drapes. She didn’t have time to grab anything else though as she fretted Sirius might choke himself to death.   
  
When she made her way back to his stall there was a  _heavy_  smell of alcohol in the air. She made a face as she knelt down, tapping the bucket filled with a bright red foamy mess inside it and clearing it with the scouring charm.   
  
‘How do muggles live without magic?’ She dry heaved again and returned her attention to Sirius. He looked spent. His breathing was laboured and he was slumped against the stall wall. She reached out and brushed some of the hair from his face and he opened his eyes and looked directly at her. Ali froze up. The scene from the hospital wing came back to her, that day she had placed her hand down on his chest and he had awoken to grab her.   
  
The look he was giving her now couldn’t have been more different though. Instead of astonishment, his features softened and he smiled at her.  
  
‘Hi.’ He breathed out and tried to keep his head up. Ali raised a singular brow in question at him.  
  
‘Would you like the water on?’ She asked again now that he seemed to be less poisoned by the rum.   
  
‘Yes, please.’ He replied sweetly. Her breath caught as he stared at her so contently after having just thrown up the entirety of the contents of his stomach. She could hear her heart beating in her eardrums. She stood up, leant over him, and turned the tap on to a lukewarm, light spray. She reached down and offered him a hand.  
  
He took it sleepily and got to his feet, still swaying from side to side.   
  
‘I’ll just-' she stopped dead as he turned around and the jumper dropped off him, ‘-be out here!’ She finished turning away from his back and closing the stall door. She heard him step under the water. Her breathing was so heavy, she couldn’t understand it. She tried to calm herself down but her mind kept jumping back to her mystery book. It was a terribly fictitious tale about a boy and a girl falling in love. Some overly done, damp plot line about a muggle and a pureblood, fighting against the constraints of magical world and the prejudice against their relationship. The muggle boy had been kidnapped by elitists and tortured. His lover found him and fought the elitist members and had dragged him to safety all on her own. Ali wanted to launch the book into the sun it was  _so pathetic_.   
  
But, she couldn’t. She just kept reading. And the book had spared no details. As she stood now outside Sirius’s shower door, trying to keep herself together, she was reminded of the scene in which the witch had washed down her battered and bruised lover’s body and nursed him back to health. There had been some incredibly steamy scenes that made Ali blush just thinking about.  
  
‘Adams?’ She jumped as her heart skipped a beat when Sirius called out to her.   
  
‘Y-yes? Are you okay?’ Her eyes darted around the bathroom as she awaited his reply.   
  
‘You won’ leave, will you?’ he slurred, but his sentences were becoming more intelligible. Ali didn’t know what to reply. She was certain she should have stormed up the stairs ages ago and grabbed one of his friends to handle this. She wasn’t a damn babysitter. But something stopped her.  
  
‘Uh, no. I’ll stay.’ She seemed to relax a little against the door now. Sirius didn’t reply to that and stood in the shower for a further twenty minutes in silence.  
  
‘Adams?’ He asked again and Ali bit her lip on the other side of the door.  
  
‘Yes?’  
  
‘You don’t… hate me, do you?’ His voice was light and quizzical. Ali frowned at that question.  
  
‘Well, you’re infuriating.’ She started, thinking about it. ‘You disregard all the school rules Black. And you traipse around the school like you own it. You bully everyone with Potter. You’re arrogant and lazy and-' she stopped herself from saying anymore and swallowed hard. Her mind returned to the very many things she could also remember about him that weren’t horrible. Things she’d only realised last year.  
  
‘-But, no. I don’t  _hate_  you.’ She finished, rolling her eyes as the water turned off.  _She_  couldn’t even explain her feelings towards him anymore. It used to be so simple. She just hated him. Every aspect of him. But since last year she had seen sides to Sirius she hadn’t known existed. Then the door behind her swung backwards and she fell into the stall without a moment’s notice. Sirius grabbed her and stabilized her as he fell against the wall behind him.  
  
Feeling his wet body soaking into her nightgown and pyjamas made the hairs stand up on the back of her neck and she launched herself off him immediately. When she turned around she made sure her eyes stayed well above his face and she pulled her dressing gown off and threw it around him. When she decided it would be okay to look at him, she swore inwardly. The silk was clinging to every part of his body and he started laughing at her face.  
  
‘You’re going bright red. Never seen a guy naked before?’ His laughter was very different from usual. It was goofy and he kept trying to heave in breaths between them. She felt her mouth go dry as her eyes trailed down, and she grabbed his hand before she saw too much.  
  
‘No! Actually, I haven’t!’ Her usual temper around him returned and she dragged him out of the bathroom and into the common room. Once they got to his dorm, she flung the door open to find James and Peter passed out on James’s bed, still fully clothed. She marched Sirius over to the bed she knew to be his and pushed him down into it.  
  
‘Sleep it off, and return my gown tomorrow.’ When she looked down at him, Sirius was smiling up at her coyly. It was a look she had never seen on his face before. Perpetually bored, lazy Sirius Black did not  _ever_  look shy.   
  
‘Thanks Adams.’ He replied as his eyes drooped shut and he collapsed backwards. She looked over to Remus’s bed, and he was buried under his mountain of blankets. She looked over to James and Peter who were both snoring. Then back to Sirius, who seemed to already have nodded off. She sighed, pulled a blanket from the floor to cover him with, and then left the room in silence.


	37. First date

James was having a very vivid dream. It was about Lily. Their upcoming date. He had so many plans for it. It was going to be  _great_. As the dream progressed and she laughed at his jokes and they cozied up together, she looked up at him with her radiant smile and James suddenly realised they were on a flying carpet. This wasn’t good! Flying carpets were recently ban in Britain! Lily would have hated it. And James was good on a broom, but he’d never tried his luck on one of these. The carpet flung around and threw them off and he writhed around in his sleep.   
  
Suddenly they were in a giant knitted pouffe together. Like the ones in the divinations classroom. And Lily was laughing and holding onto him. He smiled and hugged her tight. She felt a little bigger than he could remember her being. It didn’t matter though. He nuzzled into her neck and was blissfully happy. Until someone cleared their throat and awoke him. As he opened his eyes his head began to throb and his entire body felt like a dead weight. The first thing that swam into his blurred vision was not deep red hair, but stringy colourless hair.  
  
He was holding Peter tight into his body. James drew in a deep breath then screamed, pushing Peter off himself and jumping up on his bed.  
  
‘Wormtail no!’ He flung around to where laughter had just started flooding his ears and Lily was holding her stomach, doubled over. She was blurry as his glasses were missing.  
  
‘What’s all the noise?’ Peter opened his eyes and stretched out of his curled up position on James bed.  
  
‘You were molesting me!’ James squawked and Lily actually fell over now.  
  
‘Shut  _up_!’ Came a gruff voice from Sirius’s bed. ‘I’ll kill you both and bury you together.’ Lily stopped laughing in her position on the floor and James froze as they looked towards Sirius who was barely covered by a blanket. James squinted towards him trying to see through the haze that was bad vision. He gave up and fell to his knees, feeling around the bed. Lily got to her feet while he searched. Once he located his glasses and replaced them on his face, he looked over at Sirius again.  
  
‘What. The hell. Happened last night?’ James was pointing at Sirius who was lying naked on his bed, in a pink silk dressing gown that was twisted all around him from his vicious sleep patterns. His lower half was, just barely, but thankfully covered by the blanket that was thrown over him.  
  
Lily cracked into a fit of laughter again as she registered Sirius.  
  
‘Is this how you knuckleheads wake up every morning? This is  _glorious_. Wait until I tell the girls!’ James leapt from the bed towards her and covered her eyes just in the nick of time as Sirius kicked the blanket off.  
  
‘Sirius! COVER YOUR SHAME MAN!’ James screamed pulling Lily’s face into his neck. Peter was sitting up and laughing over at Sirius now. James’ head was pounding from the volume of his own voice rattling around in his head. Remus dug his way out of his covers and peered over at them.   
  
‘L-Lily?’ Remus blinked a multitude of times as he registered what was before him.  
  
‘Oh my  _head_!’ James clutched his head, still holding Lily close to him. ‘This is a nightmare! It has to be! Where’s the magic carpet? Where’s the pouffe?’ James pulled Lily back at arm’s length and stared at her. She looked rather dazed.  
  
‘Uh, Potter?’ She stared, blinking a few times back at him. ‘What the  _hell_  are you on about? I came up here to get you up. It’s already past midday and- well…’ her eyes trailed off as did her voice.  
  
‘Our date! Oh no!’ He clutched his head again and felt bile rise up the back of his neck. What were they  _thinking_  drinking that much last night? They were down at the three broomsticks for longer than a full day of classes.   
  
‘Someone please stop him from yelling or I’m going to come over there and flay him alive.’ Sirius muttered in a very dark tone and curled himself up in his blanket.   
  
‘I’m going to be sick.’ James heaved and ran from the room. He tried to take the stairs as many as he could at a time but his foot slipped towards the bottom and he ended up flat on his back with the wind knocked out of him. He was also positive he just swallowed half the alcohol from last night that had been trying to resurface.   
  
He groaned loudly rolling over to his side and hugging his knees into his chest as tears formed in his eyes from the pain.  
  
‘So?’ Lily’s voice came from above him. He opened his eyes one after the other, looking up. She looked beautiful. Her hair was down and she’d clearly worked some small ringlets into the ends. Her face looked like porcelain. Her eyes were radiant and a fierce dark green. She had her hands on her hips and was smiling down at him in a rather amused way. ‘This date is off to a smashing start.’  
  
James groaned again, ‘I’m so sorry. This isn’t what I planned.’ He curled back into the foetal position as the urge to vomit resurfaced. ‘I just- I need to shower.’  
  
‘Oh no, by all means, I wanted to go out with you smelling like a brewery.’ She replied cheekily but when he looked up at her again, she held out a hand for him. Even through his pain, he couldn’t help but smile as he reached out for her. She helped him slowly to his feet and as they stood at eye level (James having to look down somewhat) neither said a word for at least thirty seconds.   
  
The only things that broke the sweet silence was the need for James to clutch his head and double over.   
  
‘Come on Romeo.’ Lily chuckled and walked him over to the showers. She left him at the door and told him she would go back upstairs and collect some of his clothes to wear. James wanted to protest. He had a very many things up there he wasn’t ready for her to see yet. Namely his naked best friend. He didn’t want her to  _ever_  see that. But Lily was gone before he could form the words. He was very slow this morning.   
  
When it came to hangovers he, Sirius, and Remus felt them the same. Like normal human beings did. Like you just had your soul ripped out of your chest and replaced with a steaming pile of, well, you get the idea. They wouldn’t leave their beds if they could help it. Eyes heavy, heads throbbing, tempers high in Sirius’s case. Intellect out the window in all their cases. Sentence could not be formed. What were they again?   
  
Peter on the other hand was superhuman when it came to alcohol. He would drink, hold himself together no matter the consumption, then he was suddenly out like a light. You could not wake him for  _anything_. Then come morning, he was up, fresh as daisy. It was unnatural but it did prove to be useful when the others needed someone to find them greasy food.  
  
As James stepped into the shower he felt weak and, for reasons unknown that he was sure would come back to him, ashamed. He stood under the stream of water and tried to wash away the regret, but it was too deeply implanted. Once he was clean he dried himself off and then began to feel dizzy. Usually showers brought a little life back, but he was still feeling like rancid milk. He raced to a toilet and puked up horrible acid tasting bile.  
  
‘You really know how to charm a girl.’ Lily came in behind him and dropped some clothes down beside him.   
  
‘Don’t look at me.’ He managed to get out before returning to the toilet bowl to puke up what seemed to be nothing. He just kept dry heaving. ‘I’m disgusting.’ He heaved again.  
  
‘Oh no Potter. You want to go and get hammered before a date, that’s fine. But don’t think I’m going to let you off easy.’  
  
‘Just leave me to drown in the toilet.’ He heaved again. Lily merely laughed behind him.  
  
‘Come on. Get your pants on and I’ll help you with the rest, you pathetic mess.’ She sounded like she was having far too much fun. James heaved one last time and once he felt like his stomach was settling somewhat he flipped around and pulled on a pair of briefs under the towel. Just as Lily was helping him back to his feet a fifth year boy walked in and froze at the sight.  
  
‘Head girl duties, go about your business.’ Lily nodded to him as she dragged James over to the basins. She leant him down to the taps. ‘Wash your mouth out.’  
  
James did as he was told and after that Lily sat him down and tended to him kindly. She grabbed a hand towel and dried off the spots he missed. She pulled a shirt over his head and helped him pull on a pair of jeans. Once she had a jumper over his head, she replaced his glasses. James was swaying pitifully and as she began trying to tidy his hair, he looked up at her.  
  
‘I have a lot of plans.’ He mumbled and she smiled down at him.  
  
‘What are they?’ She asked combing his hair with her fingers. She was fighting a losing battle. Against James’ better judgement he reached up and grabbed her hand and led her from the bathroom.   
  
‘Stay here.’ He told her and tried to rush up the stairs back to his dorm. His head was thumping. Once inside the dorm he looked around for the things he needed.  
  
‘Shut  _up_  Prongs!’ Sirius shouted at him, wrapping himself tighter in his blanket.  
  
‘Put some damn pants on Sirius.’ James threw back at him, locating his wand and the basket he had prepared yesterday. He quickly scooped it up, pulled on a pair of shoes and left the dorm where Peter had disappeared from and Sirius and Remus were back to being dead to the world.  
  
He raced downstairs, holding his head with one hand and his things in the other. He winced in pain as he got to Lily. He grabbed her hand in his free one and led her from the common room.  
  
‘Do I get any kind of information on said plan? Or do I just follow along blindly?’ Lily asked as she kept in step behind him. He didn’t reply. He was too focused on getting to where they needed to be along with trying to keep his vision focused. Pro tip, do not go out drinking with your mates the night before the most important first date of your life. It is far from desirable.   
  
When they got to the double doors of the entrance hall James couldn’t help but smile though. This was a great idea. Lily would love it. He turned back to her and she stopped, smiled back and James turned and pushed one side of the doors open. Instead of the sunshine he had been expecting, the grounds outside were shrouded in darkness from the thick clouds overhead.  
  
Suddenly there was a huge crack of thunder and Lily’s hand tightened in his own from the noise. James face dropped as rain started pelting down beyond them.  
  
He turned back to Lily and she looked amused, ‘this is okay.’ James nodded. He could figure this out. This was fine. He racked his brain for a moment. He could have used the imperturbable charm, but they would still get wet while walking out and down towards the lake. He dropped his head in defeat.  
  
‘Potter?’ He turned around to Lily and she was still looking highly amused, ‘we can just go somewhere inside?’ She suggested and James’s eyes lit up with an idea.  
  
‘Perfect!’ He secured her hand tightly again and raced back towards the stairs. They raced back up the many stairs and through the many corridors all the way back to the seventh floor and they travelled down to where James led Lily. When they stopped outside a particularly deserted corridor James was reaping the punishment for having run again so soon after vomiting. He felt nauseous but he let Lily’s hand go.  
  
‘You can’t tell anyone about this. It’s a secret between only the most important of people.’ James warned Lily. She merely nodded back to him, biting her lip. James paced the floor back and forth out the front of the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. Once he made it back for the third time, the door to the room of requirements began to materialize. Lily gasped quietly and James motioned for her to come closer.  
  
‘What is this?’  
  
‘Special place.’ James grinned. But the pacing had once again made him rather ill. As he opened the door and they stepped inside Lily looked around the room in wonder. There was a fire crackling inside, and a couch and a thick hearth rug on the floor. The room looked lovely and cosy- well, until you noticed the toilet in the corner in plain sight.  
  
‘What’s with the loo?’ Lily frowned turning back to James.   
  
‘Oh, uh, I felt a little ill from the running, it must have thought I might have needed it.’ He pushed out a humourless laugh and when Lily turned back around to inspect the room further, he slapped himself in the head. That, also, was a bad idea. It felt like his brain was rattling around in his head for at least thirty seconds until his vision swam back and he saw Lily over by the couch.  
  
His face broke into a smile though as she pulled her hand over the back of the chair, feeling the fabric. She had a look of unperturbed happiness on her face when she turned back to him.  
  
‘I prepared some food yesterday after class.’ He held the basket up triumphantly. ‘Put a cooling charm on it to keep it all fresh.’ He strode over to her, quite pleased with himself. He placed the basket down on the rug and knelt down beside it. When he opened the left side his face dropped, yet again. Lily started laughing before he could say anything.  
  
‘You’re not very good at this are you?’ She said, looking down into the basket where there were half devoured sandwiches, crackers all crushed up and littering the bottom of the basket. Cheese squished into places. An assortment of lolly wrappers, all lollies seemed to be missing. An empty thermos that smelt of old pumpkin soup. Breadcrumbs and shells of dinner rolls that had their insides eaten out. A small pitcher of pumpkin juice, drowning the rest of the contents as it had been tipped over.   
  
‘Peter and I must have gotten into it last night!’ He smacked himself in the head again.  
  
‘You’re going to give yourself brain damage if you keep that up.’ She grabbed his hands and pulled them down away from his head. ‘I mean, if you haven’t already that is.’   
  
‘Ugh! No, I had so many good ideas though.’ He looked at Lily pathetically.  
  
‘Uh, Potter? From our previous run in’s, I wasn’t expecting a five-course meal and butlers.’ She gave him a kind smile and reached up to brush some of his matted fringe away from his glasses. She pulled him over to the couch and sat him down. She took a seat beside him and James tensed up. He started fiddling with his wand in his lap and looking at nothing else.  
  
‘For someone so confident within himself, you’re not doing a very good job of courting me.’ Lily sounded as if she was going to laugh. James' hand went up for his hair, abandoning his wand and he looked over at the radiant redhead.   
  
‘I- it’s just- it’s  _you_.’ He admitted lamely.  
  
‘Yes. It’s me. I’m Lily Evans.’  
  
‘No but, it’s really you. And me. Sitting together. And- well- you  _want_ to be here?’ Although he meant the last words as a statement, it came out as more of a question as he peered at her over his glasses.  
  
She reached out and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose for him, ‘yes Potter. I  _want_  to be here. Somehow, your persistent and maddening behaviour seems to have worked in your favour. I don’t know how... I should rightly want to smack you. But-' She lowered her hand to his lap and took away his wand, placed it behind her, then returning to entwine his fingers with her own. ‘I suppose I’d like to see you live up to all your talk over the years.’  
  
James was very focused on their clasped hands, ‘like, what?’  
  
‘Oh, I don’t know. Maybe like, “together we could make the shrieking shack worthy of its name.” Those type of remarks.’ Lily chose not to look at him as she said this. It was most embarrassing and she had been thinking it up all night. But when she found no reply coming from the boy before her, she returned her gaze to him.   
  
James’ mouth hung wide open and his eyes were unblinking behind his glasses. He didn’t move for a full minute as he gaped at her. Lily started to laugh at his expression.  
  
‘You’re- You’re perfect!’ He launched himself forward and closed his arms around her as she laughed uncontrollably in both embarrassment and happiness. She felt herself melt a little as his warm breath heated her neck and then he pulled her back suddenly.  
  
‘Say it again!’  
  
‘No Potter!’ She pushed him away but couldn’t help but smile. ‘Why don’t you relax a little, tell me what you got up to last night?’ He lit up at that and they got comfortable at opposite ends of the couch as James launched into a detailed retelling of last night’s events. Lily disregarded the rule breaking. It was well established that these boys were lost causes. She laughed along as he explained Sirius and his terrible skills at holding himself together when alcohol was involved. James left out the parts about Sirius turning into a dog, which was certainly a conversation for much, much later on.   
  
They were both laughing and talking well into the afternoon until Lily suddenly saw her watch and realised the time.  
  
‘Oh! The dinner!’ She announced jumping off the couch, ‘I have to go to Slughorn’s dinner!’  
  
‘Oh.’ James looked dejected but nodded to her.  
  
‘Well?’ Lily looked at him expectantly. ‘Get up. I can’t go without my date can I?’ She reached down and grabbed his hand and after they collected up the dismal basket they left the room, both smiling like fools.


	38. Another first date

Over the past month, things within the Gryffindor house had shifted immensely. For one, James Potter was rarely seen without Lily Evans. The two were the most talked about couple in the school. Head Boy and Girl, together, after James had been trying relentlessly for nearly two years. It was somewhat of a fairy tale story. Usually Ali wasn’t one to focus on such things, but recently she had been feeling most strange towards everything romance related. As she sat at lunch one afternoon, coming up to Halloween, she watched with a smitten smile on her face as Lily and James sat side by side, eating.   
  
Across from them, Remus and Marlene were together. Remus had only left the hospital wing that morning after he’d apparently gotten a stomach bug. By the look of him, Ali wasn’t sure he should have been released. Marlene seemed to be fussing over him. Both couples we’re pressed tight to one another and James was halfway through a tale that seemed to be of epic proportions. He was making loud hand gestures and Remus was rolling his eyes across from him. Lily and Marlene both looked to be quite amused however and as James knocked his pumpkin juice over, Lily grabbed him and forced him to sit down. She looked to be reprimanding him, but when he smiled at her she started to laugh and tried to fix the mess of knots hanging over his glasses.   
  
When Ali looked beyond them, towards the entrance of the great hall, she saw Peter and Sirius walking in. Her eyes immediately averted to her food and her breath hastened. She hadn’t been able to look Sirius Black directly in the eye since she had almost seen every uncovered inch of his body. With James occupied by Lily and Head duties and Remus spending so much time with Marlene, the Gryffindor boys seemed to be getting into a lot less trouble than they used to. When she glanced back she saw James waving over to Sirius and Peter.   
  
They took seats beside the other two boys, but when she allowed herself to focus on Sirius, he looked less than pleased.   
  
‘Al!’ Ali jumped slightly at the sudden attention and looked ahead. Dirk Cresswell was taking a seat across from her, with her cousin Nay.  
  
‘Oh, hey.’ She smiled curtly back at them. Dirk gave her a very timid expression, but her cousin was as loud as always.  
  
‘What are you looking at?’ His voice was always at least two levels higher than it should have been for table conversation.  
  
‘Keep it down, would you?’ Ali swatted at him, ‘why are you sitting with me anyway? Won’t that cramp your style, oh exulted one?’ She adopted a very bland face as Nay smiled back at her.  
  
‘Al, you are pretty weird, but you’re still family. It’ll be great for your image if I sit with you from time to time.’ He nodded like he was doing her a favour and she rolled her eyes.  
  
‘I don’t really care about my “image”.’  
  
‘Everyone cares about their image.’  
  
‘I don’t.’  
  
‘You’re lying.’  
  
‘I’m not  _lying_. I don’t  _lie_. You’re just narcissistic.’   
  
‘What does that mean?’ Nay lifted up a hand and touched his hair to make sure his tight black curls were all in the right positions. Ali snorted a laugh at him.  
  
‘How are you going with all the homework for sixth year?’ Dirk asked politely, trying to break the tension. Ali merely gave him a very puzzled reply in the form of her facial language. ‘Sorry. Stupid question.’ He nodded returning his attention to the food he was grabbing.   
  
‘So, how are Aunty Kani and Uncle Chris?’ Nay asked picking at his teeth and piling things onto his plate. Ali ignored him and looked back towards Remus and the others. Sirius wasn’t eating. Everyone else seemed to be in high spirits bar Black.  
  
‘I don’t think they're doing anything wrong.’ Dirk’s voice woke Ali from her staring.  
  
‘Oh-' She focused on him and her ears felt hot. She quickly turned her attention down to her food. ‘I know. I know that.’   
  
‘So Al! Hogsmeade trip this weekend. Are you keen? Or are you  _keen_?’   
  
‘Honestly Nay. Would you keep it down? Not everyone within a five-mile radius is dying to be a part of your conversation. Yes, Mum and Dad are well. And no, I don’t think I’ll bother with Hogsmeade.’ She fiddled with her food glaring over at her cousin. Most people were unaware Nay and Ali were even related, as Nay’s appearance vastly differed from her own.   
  
‘Oh, really? Because, well-' Dirk started but was immediately interrupted by his best friend.  
  
‘Listen Al. You should come with us. It’ll be good for you. We’ll socialize you up. Get you ready for the real world. We’re graduating soon, after all. You can’t live in a library forever.’ He winked over at her with an open mouthed grin and gave her two thumbs up. His teeth seemed to be pearly white in contrast to his dark skin. There was a reason she usually avoided her cousin. He was on the quidditch team, a beater, and thought a lot of himself. Ali’s lips were but a thin line and her eyebrows made a similar line above her humourless eyes.   
  
She chose to ignore the comment and turned to Dirk who was looking at Nay bemusedly.   
  
‘Oh! Emily!’ Nay swung around the seat and rushed over to Ali’s dorm mate Emily Clark. Ali watched as he came to stand beside her and began talking. Emily wasn’t a bright girl, but at the moment she looked quite bored with the conversation. She kept looking over to the doors as if she needed to be somewhere and Ali felt for her. She found it curious though, as her cousin wasn’t usually one to bore girls. On the contrary, they all usually giggled at his loud behaviour and generally gushed at him.  
  
‘Uh, anyway.’ Dirk’s words startled Ali as she’d forgotten he was there. ‘What Nay was trying to say is, well- I’d like it if you came with us. Or, rather, maybe even just me? To Hogsmeade that is.’ Ali watched as his lips moved. Dirk was getting far better at holding a conversation with her since they’d had their small row after rounds one night. She still found him to be very boring though.   
  
Her usual reply to this would have been an excuse. A no. Boys had asked her to Hogsmeade in the past and she had never been remotely interested. But her conversation from over a month ago with Lily came back to her. Maybe she should  _try_  and give dating a go? Maybe there was something she was missing? Maybe it would have been less boring than just conversing like this? She’d read her mystery book so many times over the last month she was sure the pages were becoming thinner. She was quite curious about the feelings it brought up for her.  
  
‘Uh-' she contemplated it and didn’t realise how tense Dirk was across from her. ‘Well, I  _suppose_.’ She shrugged and stabbed her fork into some of her roast pumpkin. She didn’t even glance at Dirk to see his reaction. Nay soon returned from his chat with Emily and his loud nature annoyed Ali all through her meal. Nay discussed many topics with Dirk but Ali just ignored the both of them. Her eyes darted casually over to the seventh years at well placed intervals.   
  
After lunch Ali’s eye was twitching as Nay and Dirk followed her out to Herbology. Between Nay’s constant conversations and Dirk’s incessant need to invade her personal space she was happy when Professor Sprout instructed them they would be learning how to extract the pods of Snargaluff’s. Maybe the plant might kill the two of them? Unfortunately this only found her in a group with all four of her cousin’s friends and she tended to step away from one every time they approached her. By the time class ended she literally couldn’t stand anymore of them and stayed in greenhouse three to chat to Professor Sprout.  
  
‘Op! Adams! How are you?’ Professor Sprout noticed her lingering as she hustled around trying to get things back into order after the sixth year class.   
  
‘Very well Professor, did you need help with anything?’  
  
‘Oh, you’re such a pleasure! I could use a hand with these pots actually. Would you mind helping me pile them up over the other end of the greenhouse? I have fourth years planting fanged geranium’s first thing on Monday. That’s a dear, thank you.’ Ali stayed chatting to Professor Sprout for almost half an hour as she moved the pots with her. Once the task was finished she had awarded her five points for Gryffindor and gave her a hearty pat on the back.   
  
As she left the greenhouse and travelled back into the castle she felt her mood lift from the irritated state her cousin and his rowdy friends had put her in. When she was walking up the stairs she closed her eyes, smiling, wondering what homework she could tackle tonight. She walked headfirst into someone and almost toppled backwards down the stairs but a set of hands flung out and pulled her back by the front of her robes.  
  
She was about to apologise when a set of steely, irritated eyes came into her focus and she almost jumped a foot high from horror.  
  
‘Watch where you’re going.’ Sirius fixed his irritated expression on her.  
  
‘You can talk!’ She spat back. Clearly mister mopey had been just as blindly descending the stairs.   
  
‘I’m not the one that nearly had my head cracked open.’  
  
‘Oh well  _thank you_  for your services!’ This was the first words they had spoken to each other since Ali had found him practically passed out on the common room floor. And very much naked. She still hadn’t had her dressing gown returned to her. She had been too ashamed to ask for it.  
  
‘You know, you have a serious attitude problem.’ He added setting her free from his grasp.  
  
‘Oh, you’ve only just noticed?’ She quirked a defiant eyebrow at him and his angry façade twitched to amusement so very briefly, she wondered if she’d imagined it.  
  
‘Whatever.’ He rolled his eyes and made to walk by her.  
  
‘Hold on!’ She reached out and grabbed the back of his jumper and mentally screamed at herself. What was she  _doing_? She wanted to smash her face into the staircase bannister. ‘Uh, thank you.’ She couldn’t reduce herself to his level. He had stopped her from falling down the stairs, she had to thank him. For it was Sirius Black’s lack of an apology the first time they met that had led to her deeply fuelled animosity towards him.   
  
Sirius’s irritated expression eased slightly as he stared back at her. He nodded to her and continued on down the stairs and out of sight. Ali hadn’t realised how fast she had started breathing until he was very much gone. She wasn’t unaccustomed to such a reaction in his presence however. He usually frustrated her to the point of a quickened pulse. She shrugged and took the stairs back up to the common room two at a time, with her eyes  _open_.

*

Saturday came and went rather quickly, Ali spent the day in the great hall helping Professor Flitwick and Hagrid with early preparations for the Halloween feast that would be taking place on Monday night. That night she had decided to take up a space in the common room, instead of the library, to read a letter from her parents and Tucker. Apparently their new home had a ghoul. It was terribly annoying and her father had been working to banish it with some pointers from a friend of his in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.   
  
When Sunday came along, she dressed in casual clothing for once. She pulled on a pale pink, long-sleeved woollen dress over a pair of thick grey stockings and shoved a beanie on over her curls. After she laced up a pair of boots she left her dorm due to the glares she was receiving from Anna and Bianca. She immediately tensed at just how full the common room was.   
  
‘Ali!’ For half a second she expected to turn around and see Remus and her face adopted a smile, but she felt somewhat crestfallen when she realised it was Dirk Cresswell. She tried her best not to show it.  
  
‘Morning Cresswell.’  
  
‘Did you want to go down and grab some breakfast? It’s pretty crowded in here with everyone trying to find each other before they go down to the entrance hall.’ As he was talking something else had caught her eye. Lily Evans was finally standing on her own for the first time Ali had seen in a month.   
  
‘Uh, what? Oh, yeah. Yeah, you go down would you? I just have to speak to Lily for a second. I’ll meet you down there?’ She did her best impersonation of a sweet, carefree, lively girl. By the look on Dirk’s face, something told her she failed at it.   
  
‘Sure.’ He nodded to her sceptically and walked off. Ali disregarded it and made her way over to Lily who had a clip board in her hand.  
  
‘Lily?’ Ali spoke as she approached the assertive looking redhead. She smiled over at her welcomingly.   
  
‘Hey! You look so cute.’ Lily reached out and adjusted Ali’s beanie to sit better on her head. Strangely, Ali didn’t mind it. She felt a calm smile turn on her lips.  
  
‘So, what do I have to do on a date?’ She asked as Lily pulled her hand away.  
  
‘Um, usually whatever you feel like- wait, you’re going on a date today? Did Cresswell ask you?’ Lily asked, recalling their conversation.   
  
‘Yeah. He’s waiting for me down at breakfast.’ She shrugged.  
  
‘Oh that’s so cute. Well, just go with whatever he has planned. I’m sure he has ideas. Just, you know, be nice. Enjoy yourself. Don’t be afraid to try new things I suppose.’ She seemed to contemplate her words, raising a muggle pen to her lips that Ali inspected with her eyes. She’d seen Lily using them before.  
  
‘You’ll have fun. Don’t worry. Come tell me how it all goes when we get back, yeah?’ Lily requested and Ali nodded her reply, waving a goodbye before setting off to join her counterpart prefect at breakfast. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting from today. She deemed it an experiment of sorts.   
  
When she found him at the Gryffindor table, he was with Nay and the others and she enjoyed breakfast very little. Once they set off to the village, Dirk seemed to ditch them and they found themselves alone. As they travelled along Dirk spoke to her about his study of Gobbledegook. A topic she had heard from him many times before. They made their first stop at Dominic Maestro’s, a little music shop and spent some time perusing. Ali found herself trailing off and daydreaming a lot.  
  
As time progressed they made their way to Honeydukes and picked a few items each. Dirk insisted on paying, to which made Ali very uncomfortable. When he tried to lead her to Madam Puddifoots to “grab a tea and relax”, Ali flat out refused as the idea of sitting in close confines with only idle chitchat to entertain them made her uneasy. She turned them towards Zonko’s instead.  
  
‘Zonko’s? But you  _hate_  prank stuff?’ Dirk questions, quite confused.  
  
‘No. I follow the  _rules_  at  _school_.’ Ali sighed entering the shop as Dirk followed her. ‘Besides, I like getting little things for my brother, he likes this kind of stuff.’ Thinking of her devious little brother and also her father brought a smile to her face. They made their way around the shop, Ali selected a few things she thought Tucker might have liked. His birthday was the following week, so it worked in her favour.   
  
Once she had paid and they left the store she requested they make a trip to Tomes and Scrolls. She seemed to be crushing all of Dirk’s plans, but she was boring of him, and Lily had told her to have fun. A bookshop was the best kind of fun. And there was something she very much wanted to buy. She wasn’t sure how the book she found among her texts came into her possession. It wasn’t a library book, so she wasn’t even sure where to return it to. She knew there was a sequel, but was too ashamed to check it out, had it been in the school library at all.   
  
She did her best to lose Dirk in the bookstore and locate the pair of her mystery book. Once she found it, she paid for it and left the store. She waited for Dirk on a bench outside, the book safely hidden away in brown wrapping paper.   
  
‘Hey! There you are!’ She heard his voice and barely turned to register him. He took a seat on the bench beside her as a few students passed by, laughing and chatting loudly.  
  
‘We should probably head back soon.’ She tried to make it sound like an effort to say the words, as if she hadn’t wanted to leave. In reality, all she wanted to do was return to the common room, find Snowball, close the curtains around her bed and settle in to read her book.  
  
‘Oh, yeah. Probably. Did- Did you have fun today?’ Dirk asked as Ali stared down at her brown paper package. His hand reached over to hers, and pulled it from the packed, to entwine with his own. She decided she wouldn’t fight it. “Try new things” Lily had said.  
  
‘Yeah. Sure. It was nice.’ She smiled, turning towards him. As she did she felt his hand secure behind her neck and pull her face towards his own. Ali did not shut her eyes, as Dirk had. She watched as he drew closer and placed his lips over hers. She didn’t return the kiss, and it didn’t last very long. Once it was over, Dirk seemed to blush quiet deeply.  
  
‘Uh, Dirk?’ Ali blinked. She was confused. Dirk had kissed her, but she felt nothing. Not even the slightest stir. She thought about it in her head for a brief second. When she had read her book, all lip locking had sounded very sensual. Butterflies in stomachs. Heat. Passion. Lust. Not, bland neutral nothingness.   
  
Dirk seemed to be at a loss for words.   
  
‘Dirk, listen. I’m aware you seem to like me, and while it is flattering-' A lie, she held no real emotion towards it since Remus had mentioned it the year before. In fact, she tried to ignore it, ‘-I have to tell you, I really just can’t reciprocate here. I don’t see you that way, at all.’ Ali wasn’t sure if this was the best way to go about it, but she valued truth. And she hoped Dirk would feel the same way.  
  
‘Oh, sorry.’ Dirk looked down to his lap, freeing her hand.  
  
‘Don’t apologise. I thought today might have been-' a trial run. An experiment. An attempt to see if dating was all people made it out to be, ‘-fun. But, that-' she couldn’t lie again. ‘That was just  _uncomfortable._ ’ She screwed her face up. Dirk looked up at her and laughed slightly.  
  
‘Uh, it was a bit, wasn’t it?’ He started laughing a little more now, looking at Ali’s concerned face.   
  
‘Do people find this to be entertaining?’ She frowned.  
  
‘Well, when you’re with the right person, I think so.’ Dirk smiled off in front of him.  
  
‘Did you have fun?’ She questioned, expecting his answer to most certainly resemble her own.  
  
‘Well, I did, kind of.’ He seemed to be very intent on looking straight ahead.   
  
‘Oh.’ Ali took a moment to figure out the meaning to his words, but she got there eventually. ‘Sorry.’  
  
‘Don’t apologise.’ He copied her earlier statement. ‘It can’t be helped.’ Suddenly he stood up and turned back to her. ‘We should probably be getting back.’ He held a hand out for her, but Ali didn’t take it.  
  
‘Could we, perhaps, keep the hand holding to a minimum?’ She stared at his hand and Dirk laughed.  
  
‘You have to be the oddest sixteen-year-old girl I know.’  
  
‘You know, I’ve heard that a few times before.’ She smiled and Dirk laughed with her as they started their walk back to school together, walking by a few whispering Ravenclaw students.


	39. The Hogwarts beast

A few days passed from their Hogsmeade trip and Ali found whispers following her even more than usual. She thought she had been going a little crazy on the Monday night at the Halloween feast when she kept looking up to see not only Gryffindor, but the surrounding house students staring at her and whispering behind their hands. In her previous years at Hogwarts she was no stranger to people sometimes covertly pointing at her in corridors, perhaps even laughing from time to time. She generally ignored it. She was rather aware of what people thought of her. The peculiar girl that spent all her time reading and didn’t have any real friends. But it was quite hard to ignore it when people made a point of “whispering” loud enough for you to hear.  
  
‘Yeah, I heard Dirk Cresswell took her on a date to Hogsmeade.’ A Hufflepuff from Ali’s class whispered as they left their charms classroom, meeting up with a friend outside.   
  
‘Cresswell? Didn’t think he had it in him. So someone finally slayed the beast, ay?’ At these words, she whipped around and glared at them. Both the Hufflepuff girl, and the Slytherin boy froze where they were, unsure if their obvious tactical word vomit would stir the estranged girl the wrong way.   
  
‘Don’t you two have something  _better_  to do with your time than  _gossip_?’ She spat and they both flinched. The way they were looking at her, like a time bomb about to blow. Ali huffed out a huge breath and turned on her heal, marching off towards the west end of the castle to make her way up to owlery. If there was one handy thing about moving back to Britain, it was that she could send letters to her parents much more frequently.  
  
As she made her way through the corridors, there were more and more fingers pointed in her direction. They were followed by whispers and giggles and Ali felt herself shrinking back inside her robes, hoping to disappear. Why were teenagers  _like_ this? Why was the most important thing to them discussing each other’s misfortunes? Why didn’t they focus more of their attention towards their school work? Why was Davey Gudgeon  _staring_  at her like that?  
  
‘Hey! Adams!’ He waved over when he noticed her eyes settle on him.  
  
‘Uh, yes?’ She halted as he made his way over.  
  
‘Is it true?’ He asked, lacking a focused subject on what “it” was.  
  
‘I’m sorry?’  
  
‘You’re dating Cresswell? Like, you actually got your head out of a book long enough to snog someone?’  
  
Ali’s fury was growing by the second. Gudgeon must have noted this however, as he took a step back his joking demeanour softened to one of mild concern.  
  
‘Whoa, Adams. It was just a joke.’ He raised his hands before his chest, ‘Take it easy. I mean I heard it from Cresswell, I was just taking the mickey.’ He tried to laugh it off but by this point Ali was seeing red. She whacked him aside and stormed off in the direction towards the west tower. It was at this point in time she was furious about the anti-disapparation jinx on Hogwarts. She would have loved to have been able to leave the castle and go home, rant to her mother and father, then return once it was off her chest. She was almost shaking.  
  
Not that it made much difference though. Ali being the youngest in the entire year meant she would not be able to receive her apparition licence until the next school year came around.  
  
Once she arrived at the west tower, she took the stairs up slowly. Winter was creeping up and the stairs were known to get icy in the lower temperatures. She focused her attention on her feet, thinking about everyone’s words. They were rattling around in her head making her more and more angry. When she reached the last step, she lifted her head just in time to see herself run straight into someone’s back.  
  
She pushed the unsuspecting person straight into the hay and animal skeletons on the floor and her anger subsided for the moment as she cursed and flew down to the floor to help them.  
  
‘I’m so sorry!’ She said, before she realised who it was. Sirius groaned as he stood back up, inspecting the owl droppings now covering his hands and knees.  
  
‘Honest to merlin, Adams, what is going on with you these days?’ He asked, as he identified his attacker. He wiped his hands down the front of his school trousers making a gagging motion. As Ali watched him, she felt wholly responsible. She wasn’t sure if it was the name calling she had just been subjected to. She wasn’t sure if it was the fury she just buried threatening to take a new path out of her body, or whether it was that she had smacked into Sirius for the second time in less than a week, but she felt tears burning her eyes. She tried with all her might to keep them at bay and looked up to the upper most part of the tower, where owls were nesting and cooing to one another. She felt her chest inflate with a silent sob as Sirius made disapproving noises about his hands.  
  
‘Adams- whoa. Are you okay? This isn’t- don’t worry about knocking me over. It’s fine. Look.’ He fumbled around and found his wand, placing the letter he had in his hands down. He quickly used the scouring charm to rid his hands and clothes of all the owl droppings and brushed away the hay. ‘It’s fine.’  
  
Ali kept her attention on the owls overhead. One had just flown in, looking very tired from its journey. But the owl began to blur from her vision as tears cluttered up in her bottom lids, unable to splay over from the angle she kept her head. Sirius sounded to be out of his element. He kept umming and ahhing and then suddenly she felt his thumb and forefinger settle around her chin and he brought her face lower to meet his eyes.  
  
Tears started rolling down her cheeks and she quickly wiped them away with the palms of her hands.  
  
‘Oy, I’m not going to stand for you having a cry over pushing me over. I thought you would have found that funny?’ The concern etched onto his insolently good looking face made a crease form between Ali’s brows. For the second time in her life, she was crying in front of Sirius Black. For the second time in her life, he reached up and wiped the line of tears from her cheek. She suddenly dropped her head, fearing what he might say.   
  
She expected him to imitate the other students. To ask her nosey question or even put her down. She even expected him to pull one his trade mark moves before her and slip in a snide comment to make her uncomfortable. She didn’t expect to feel his hand settle on the back of her head, pulling her face into his chest. Were she not lightly convulsing from silent sobs, she would have froze.  
  
He was very warm, even though it was a cold day. As always, he only had bits and pieces of his uniform on. His white shirt and tie were neat, but his robes were missing, as was his jumper. But even the lack of clothing didn’t keep him from being entirely too warm for a normal human being. Ali felt her whole body heat up. He didn’t close his arms around her, he just kept one hand resting on the back of her head. It allowed her to rest against him without any insecurity that she might not have been welcome.   
  
She felt him breathing slowly as his chest moved up and down. Then suddenly, his chin came to rest on the top of her head. It was curious that she didn’t pull away, but just as the time Lily had be aware she had needed some kind of human contact the day she had walked in on Remus and Marlene, Sirius seemed to be aware of it now. They stood like that for seconds… minutes? She wasn’t sure. From time to time her silent sobs were audible. She brought her hands up under her chin, feeling the need of pressure against her heaving chest and that’s when Sirius’s hand travelled down over her curls to rest on her back and drew her in closer. It wasn’t forced. It felt natural for some reason. And it was the most comforting feeling she’d ever had from someone other than her parents.   
  
The words of her peers came back to her and she felt herself soften into Sirius’s body as she cried. She had become so adapted to ignoring people over her time at Hogwarts because most of the things they said to her, hurt. In her first years at Hogwarts their whispers weren’t directed at her odd behaviour. They were malicious comments mostly from her dorm mates. They used to tease her about her curly hair. They used to tease her about her freckles, sometime even the darker colour of her skin. They used to tell her she should try harder to maintain her appearance and that she looked like a boy or a hag or something else that was wildly untrue.   
  
After having such a bad experience with them, she shied away from most students and turned to books. By her second year people would whisper and point at her, making jokes about her now bookish habits. At first it bothered her, which is why she hid in the library. But as the years progressed, she began to tune people out. Even if she walked by two of her classmates, and they whispered something about her. Even if it was loud enough for her to hear, she was so accustomed to it, it was as if she had performed the muffliato charm on herself.   
  
When her third and fourth years came around, and she found attention from boys thrust upon her, she couldn’t switch the ignorance to their words off. She missed so much of what people said, simply because she had found that was the best way to keep herself from getting hurt.   
  
Children could be very cruel, and when her dorm mates had sensed competition back in their first year, they turned on Ali. And thanks to that, she had been shaped into the reserved girl she now was. But reserved or not, the actions of her peers today hadn’t been something she could actively ignore. And as she stood pressed against the least likely person she thought she would have found herself with, she allowed herself for the moment, to just be upset about it.  
  
Sirius was so still that as Ali began to sober, she wondered what he must have been thinking. His hands were not comforting or trying to sooth her by rubbing her back like most people would be, he merely held one tight arm against her. The only movements he made were his shallow breathes. Ali didn’t want to move, for fear of what her face must now look like. And also for the fact that Sirius seemed to fit so well against her, so warm and firm. She felt his chin move against the top of her head as he sighed and suddenly she felt very stupid.   
  
She pushed away from him slightly and his grasp on her dropped away immediately. The cold air swam around her from every angle. As she reached her hands up to her face to wipe her eyes, she felt a longing to return to his grasp.   
  
She expected him to question her peculiar behaviour, but as she looked up his face seemed impassive and if anything, possibly a little melancholy. There was a tense silence, only broken by the beating of wings and the low cooing of owls above them. As Ali’s eyes met Sirius’, she felt something tug in her chest.   
  
‘Sorry.’ She breathed, wiping her eyes again.   
  
‘Don’t be.’ His words were firm. There was something meant behind them that Ali wasn’t sure of. Suddenly he reached down and retrieved his letter, and Ali only caught a glimpse of the name  _Potter_  before Sirius attached it to an owl sitting patiently behind him, which took off immediately after. The first harsh flap of its wings blew Ali’s curls out behind her and she shivered from the cold.  
  
‘Sending a letter?’ Sirius asked and for a moment Ali was astounded. He didn’t even seem the slightest bit inclined towards the reason for her tears.   
  
‘I- was going to write to my mum and dad.’ In her haste, she hadn’t realised she didn’t have any parchment for letters, or envelopes for that matter. Sirius suddenly crouched down and rummaged around in his bag. He pulled out what looked like a near empty ink pot. He tapped it once and the ink inside vanished. With a second tap, it transfigured seamlessly into a larger sized glass jar. He opened the top and conjured a small blue fire to dance suddenly inside. He walked back over to Ali and lowered it into her tear soaked hands and she immediately felt warmth wash over her.   
  
She stared down at the jar in astonishment.   
  
‘Oh, did you still want a hand with transfiguration?’ He asked, seeming to forget all about their very intimate exchange just moments ago. Ali blinked down at the pretty blue flame, then back up at Sirius.  
  
‘S-sure.’ She didn’t even bother covering up her obvious shock.  
  
‘Come over here,’ he walked by her over to the stairs and sat down after clearing the top most step for them. ‘Transfigure something for me. Then I can tell you what you’re doing wrong.’ Ali was on her way over to him obediently, until she registered his final words when she snapped out of all her previous emotions.  
  
‘W-wrong? Excuse me?’ She frowned down at him. ‘I’m not doing anything  _wrong_. I’m doing it perfectly by the  _book_.’ She stood defiantly above him, gripping her book bag’s strap. Sirius rolled his eyes and pulled her bag down so hard she almost flattened him. He managed to grab her beforehand and helped her to get comfortable close beside him.  Her lips were tense, but her eyes were somewhat soft. She wasn’t sure how to hold herself in a situation like this, but she didn’t have much time to dwell on it.   
  
Sirius waved his wand fluidly before them and conjured no less than twelve butterflies from the end. Ali felt her tear stained face break into an instant smile as the butterflies flapped their weightless wings and floated around them. One floated closer and closer to Ali’s face until it landed in the tip of her nose, causing her to go cross eyed watching it. She scrunched up her nose and the butterfly beat its wings slowly for a few seconds before it took off again and Ali turned to Sirius with an exuberant smile.   
  
‘You try.’ He instructed her with his lazy, carefree face returning to him for the first time in over a month.   
  
‘Ugh, but conjuration is literally my  _worst_  subject. I even flunked on vanishing in my practical.’ Her mood suddenly dropped.   
  
‘Vanishing? Oh, that’s a piece of cake. Here,’ he spun around to face the inside of the owlery and tapped his wand to a stray stone and it vanished completely. Ali was so very tempted to tell him to stop bragging, but the magic he had just performed was impressive enough she felt he probably held the rights to brag. For now. She scrunched her face up again, looking at another stray rock which Sirius then pushed towards her.  
  
She took a deep breath, pulled out her wand and tapped the end to the stone. The stone faded feebly as it rocked over to one side, but came back into existence within seconds. Sirius started laughing and Ali felt her cheeks burn red.  
  
‘Don’t laugh at me!’ she shoved his shoulder, but his chuckling did not subside. When he opened his eyes he smiled at her.  
  
‘I’m not laughing  _at_ you. Adams, I’m laughing  _with_  you. There’s a difference.’ He explained and reached his wand free hand up to wipe the spot under her left eyes with his thumb. The contact made Ali hold her breath suddenly.  
  
‘No there’s not.’ She breathed out once his hand had retreated. ‘I suppose you probably call me a beast behind my back too?’ Her words sounded more like a resignation than an accusation. She expected Sirius of all people to dislike her on some level. She spent a good chunk of her school life absolutely despising him, even if now she was willing to give him more leeway before she screamed at him or actively loathed him.  
  
‘Who called you a beast?’ Sirius asked casually.  
  
‘No one. It doesn’t  _really_  matter. But apparently I’m a beast that needed to be slayed.’ She shrugged and tried to keep her voice from wavering. As she spoke her words she glanced at Sirius. The top left side of his lip twitched slightly and suddenly his teeth clenched together so hard, his jaw did something that made Ali inhale suddenly.   
  
‘You need to focus more.’ He said suddenly and Ali was lost.  
  
‘I’m sorry?’  
  
‘You need to focus more. On the stone that is. You read too much of the theory, it’s all floating around in your head and you’re not focusing on the task at hand. That’s why you’re having trouble. Transfiguration is all very scientific, so you’d think reading more would help you. But you have to focus your mind on the task at hand on a molecular level.  _Everything_  needs to be focused on what’s in front of you. You can’t even waver for a moment and bring up the theory. The theory and practice are separate for a reason.’ He wasn’t looking at her as he spoke. He was staring out at the overcast skies around them.  
  
‘So, I need to- what? Loosen up? Stop reading so much?’ She assumed, downtrodden. It was what most people said to her when she cared to listen. Ease up Adams. Loosen up Adams. Calm down Adams. Take it easy Adams.  
  
‘No.’ Sirius’s smooth voice broke her out of her negative thoughts. ‘On the contrary, your form is perfect. Tense is best Adams,’ he smiled at her looking away from the sky and Ali definitely felt her heart skip a beat, ‘look at McGonagall. Do you think loosening up would do you any good? The old bird is stiff as a board. Just try and clear your head of everything  _but_  the stone. Focus  _everything_  on the stone. Every part of your mind needs to be willing that stone into non-existence. Don’t think about how, just think about it being gone.’ He motioned his head down to the stone.  
  
His words actually made sense to her. She nodded to him and pulled out her wand again. She looked down at the stone and took in a deep breath. She tried to rid her head of everything. She tried to forget her classmate’s cruel words and all the day’s events. She cleared her head of the pages in her mind instructing her how to effectively vanishing something from existence. She slowly exhaled and focused all her might on the stone, and the stone disappearing.   
  
When she tapped it, the stone was instantly gone. She jostled in her seat and laughed, a great smile breaking onto her face. She turned to Sirius and his eyes were adopting a form of lazy happiness for her. As a few of her curls fell forward from her small victory dance, Sirius reached forward brushing them from her face securing them behind her ear. Ali stopped dead, staring into his face. She had never sat this close to someone and felt so comfortable looking directly at them. Once again words seemed to be lost among them in the most comfortable way imaginable. Then the bell rang, signalling the end of break.  
  
‘Well, for your first lesson, you have done very well.’ Sirius winked at her, and got to his feet. Ali watched him stand with a feeling swelling around her throat and chest that she had never before felt. He reached down to her, and aided her to a standing position.   
  
‘You better write your letter quickly, can’t be late for class.’ He smirked at her and suddenly he seemed like the old Sirius Black again.   
  
‘I am a prefect you know. If I was late, it wouldn’t matter.’ She didn’t know what made her say it, it just sort of came out. Followed by a grin. Sirius chuckled and started to descend the stairs.  
  
‘I have something I have to do quickly before class starts Adams, but I’ll see you ‘round.’ And with one more fleeting smile, he turned and jumped down the steps three at a time, as elegantly as always, his midnight hair blowing forwards in the breeze. Ali only realised how much she was smiling when an owl clipped the side of her arm as it flew into the owlery.   
  
She swallowed hard looking around to make sure no one had seen her. All the owls were hooting quietly, or fast asleep. She allowed herself to smile once more before she left to get to class… on time.


	40. James's Kiss

Ali had already taken a seat in her potions class, arriving early as she always did. She enjoyed potions. She was among the best in her year and Professor Slughorn was always pleasant company. Slughorn usually spoke to her a lot, so her recent worries about being the hot topic of gossip around the school subsided in his presence. She always took the desk closest to him and sat alone. Today was no different. Or at least, that’s what she thought. As the rest of the class started to file inside, Gryffindor’s and Slytherin’s alike, suddenly the chair beside her screeched with movement, causing her to almost launch up out of her seat as someone took the one beside her.   
  
When she looked beside her she wasn’t sure how to react. Regulus Black had taken up the usually empty space to her right. She didn’t allow her eyes to linger and looked straight ahead to where Slughorn was setting up a demonstration potion for them. As he looked over to her table, knowing where Aaliyah sat, his face became exuberant and jolly.  
  
‘Ah! Black and Adams pairing up? Smart match. Two of my finest!’ He gravitated immediately towards them.   
  
‘How are your parents Regulus?’ Slughorn asked with his usual gay smile.  
  
‘Quite well, thank you sir.’ Regulus replied with a very crisp and polite tone. He gave their professor a very courteous look before Slughorn turned on Ali.  
  
‘And your father Aaliyah? I heard he’s been transferred to the department of law enforcement no less? Very high department. I would hope you’ve considered following along after him?’ He asked. Ali paused a moment with her reply as she was largely preoccupied with the appearance of Regulus Black by her side. The only time the two of them had said more than two words to each other in their entire schooling career was when she had run into him outside the hospital wing the week Sirius was recovering from Snape’s curse. Regulus was the Slytherin prefect for their year, but that didn’t mean much more than sharing a carriage on the train. Mostly the Gryffindor and Slytherin prefects separated between the two they were allotted anyhow.  
  
‘Uh, possibly.’ She shook her head, returning her focus to Slughorn. ‘I did entertain a Ministry job when I went over the details with Professor McGonagall, Sir. She said there really wasn’t any restrictions no matter my choice of career. So we decided to leave it open ended for now as I received enough OWLs to continue all my subjects.’  
  
‘Of course, of course. No restrictions with the grades you’ve managed. People would be fighting over you I dare say. I expect Regulus will be in the same boat though. He’s not far behind you Ali m’dear. And I believe my other one, Bartemius, he’s on par with you.’ Slughorn looked to be quite proud as he looked towards Regulus with revere.  
  
‘Grades have dropped a bit this year though old chap, see here. Perhaps you might help him a little Aaliyah?’  
  
‘That won’t be necessary Professor. I wouldn’t dare impose on one of our year’s most promising students.’ Regulus’s lines seemed almost rehearsed they were so well put together. He sounded like a character out of a play as he spoke. There was a regal air that almost swam around his words and his chin seemed to be held higher than most, although it didn’t look forced.  
  
The bell then rang signalling the beginning of their class.  
  
‘Well, whatever the cause, I like this turn of events. Two of my finest within reaching distance.’ Slughorn nodded to them, then returned to his station before directing the students with the day’s lesson.  
  
Ali glanced sideways again. Regulus was paying her next to no attention. He sat up straight in his chair with his hands folded before him on the desk as Slughorn spoke. Regulus was just one of those students that everyone knew  _about_  but no one really  _knew_. Now that she thought about it, they were rather similar. There were obviously deliberate differences. Regulus did have a large group of Slytherin friends. He wasn’t one to use his power as a prefect. Ever. He played quidditch on his house team, so sports meant something to him. But when it boiled down to it, he seemed to zone out just as much as she did.  
  
She decided that he was better company than any of the other students around and so didn’t read too much into it. On the contrary, this seating arrangement meant she wouldn’t have to worry over someone more troublesome possibly taking it and asking her probing questions about her suspected love life. It had happened nearly three times this week. The whispers in the halls had died down but she still felt more on show than usual.   
  
Boys were becoming more and more bothersome now, what with attempting to corner her after classes or hassling her at lunch. She’d had to decline no less than three date proposals now that the rumours she was dating Cresswell were laid to rest, all but running from them the minute they mentioned any kind of alone time. She was very much fine with the idea of  _not_  dating anyone for a while.    
  
As the class came to an end and Aaliyah felt herself thoroughly entranced by the everlasting elixirs they were now learning about, she almost forgot that Regulus was beside her. He didn’t make much noise, unlike some of his friends. Barty Crouch, Regulus’s seemingly right hand man, was a loud, boastful boy. He took great enjoyment from verbally abusing younger students. He was the type to spit at people passing by then laugh about it like it was a seemingly heroic act. He also enjoyed talking up his intelligence, as he and Aaliyah were the top students of their year.  
  
Next to Barty, Regulus was very sombre and detached. Although it did sound to Ali, after hearing him speak enough through their class to Slughorn, that Regulus was perfectly polite and well mannered. Without so much as glancing in her general direction, Regulus stood as the bell rang and was gone before she could blink. She decided not to dwell on it, and after packing her things away and chatting to Slughorn for a few more minutes, she made her way out of class and out into the dungeon corridors.   
  
When she made it up three flights of stairs, she had to duck and make her way in an undesired direction because Peeves was terrorising the grand staircase and all its inhabitants by pelting rotten food around. For a split second she contemplated standing up to him, as useless as it would have been, but when she heard Filch hollering in the distance she decided it was taken care of. She wasn’t keen on getting a rotten egg to the chest. She took a known shortcut behind a tapestry and came out into a deserted corridor that led to another staircase but stopped dead when she heard two people bickering up ahead.   
  
‘James Potter. Just how long are you going to treat me like I’m infected with dragon pox?’ Lily’s voice was heightened with frustration. Aaliyah took refuge behind a statue, not wanting to get in between some kind of quarrel if she didn’t have to. Her least favourite thing was awkward situations and they were almost always ensured when people were arguing.  _Especially_  couples.  
  
‘W-what? I don’t treat you like you have dragon pox!’ James defended and as Ali peered around the statue, she watched as Lily backed James up against a wall. Lily was shorter than James by at least half a head, so it was somewhat amusing to see.   
  
‘After I took you to Slughorn’s dinner, I thought that would have been sufficient enough evidence into my intentions. But no, you’re just a dumb as ever.’  
  
‘I’m not  _dumb_.’   
  
‘No, sorry. My apologies. You’re actually mentally impaired.’  
  
‘What have I done? I don’t understand at all? I thought- I thought I was doing okay? I’m trying so hard to, you know, make sure you’re happy.’  
  
‘By what? Holding my hand? James I’m a seventeen year old girl, do you think hand holding is going to cut it?’ Ali definitely noted the airy look that flittered onto James’ face as Lily said his name.  
  
‘W-what?’ Lily had him flat back against the stone wall now and looked very menacing indeed. She threw her hands down to either side of her and groaned angrily as James’ hand lifted to mess with his hair.  
  
‘Do I have to spell it out for you Potter?’ Lily asked looking up into his eyes. Ali watched as James’ eyes darted around their surroundings in thought.  
  
‘For god’s sake Potter.  **Kiss me!** ’ Lily shoved him hard in her welling anger, ‘Snog me! Dammit, have your way with me! Stop making me feel like a total sex crazed loony because here I am, wanting to strip you of your clothes and you haven’t even progressed from  _hand holding_!’ Ali had to raise a fist to her lips to muffle the chuckle that refused to be silenced.  
  
‘But! But you don’t understand! I- I’m not trying to- You’re just- It’s- LILY EVANS. You don’t just snog you. You- you cherish you!’ James sounded very nervous. He was looking down at Lily like she might crumble and he couldn’t afford the loss.   
  
‘YOU ARE A MORON!’ She began beating her fists against his chest as James tried to laugh it away. He had his hands raised in surrender.  
  
‘James Potter,’ Lily started as she gave up on her walloping, ‘stop treating me like some delicate flower.’ She spoke directly to his chest, not lifting her gaze to his face now.  James reached around and pulled her into his body, sighing as his cheek rested against her temple.  
  
‘But… that’s what you  _are_  to me.’ Lily pushed back and looked as if she was about to argue, but James raised a hand to silence her as he continued, ‘I am well, and I mean  _well,_  aware you are not some dainty girl that faints at the sight of blood Lily. I know you’re strong and tough and all that stuff. But, can’t you understand that- to a guy, no matter how tough his lady is, she’s something he wants to protect?’ There was a silence that lingered after that before James continued, ‘And, you know- it’s a little, uh, unnerving. I mean- it’s- it’s, you’re just so- perfect. And, well, beautiful. And I’ve wanted to kiss you for  _ages_. So, now that it’s a possibility- it’s, I don’t know- daunting.’  
  
From where Ali stood, eavesdropping, her heart swelled to at least twice its normal size in her chest. She felt her cheeks ache suddenly from how wide a smile had broken onto her face. She hadn’t realised she cupped her hands together in front of her chest and sighed at the sight before her. She had never heard such words come out of James Potter’s mouth. While they lacked a more poetic form, the meaning behind them was too sweet to ignore.  
  
Lily it seemed wasn’t far off Ali’s status, and before James could protest, dodge, or make up another reason to avoid it, Lily reached up and pulled his face down to her own. Ali watched as at first James seemed to be rather awkward at the sudden intimacy. He flapped his arms out to his sides in shock but as Lily pressed him up against the wall they slowly inched further down until they became limp by his sides. As Lily’s hands snaked around his neck and caressed the back of his head, he seemed to relax. His hands came around to rest on her lower back and he pulled her closer as the kiss deepened. When they finally pulled away for air, Lily pushed up onto her tiptoes and place a kiss on his cheek. Then his jaw. James' head lolled back as she continued and Ali suddenly felt  _very_  hot.   
  
She snuck out from behind the statue as the lovers returned their lips to one another and only glanced back once to see James spin Lily around so that she was against the wall instead. She fanned off her alarmingly warm face with her hand as she pushed the tapestry back aside and reappeared on the other side. When she was met with Sirius Black they both stopped dead. He gave her a small smile then made to pass her but Ali reached out and pulled him back.  
  
‘No! No. You  _really_  don’t want to go that way.’ She assured him biting her lip to stop herself from smiling like an absolute moron. Her poor lip had been subjected to this a lot lately, as she did the same thing when she read and re-read the romantic series she had now become quite addicted to.   
  
‘No but- James is this way.’ Sirius finished, with his wand brandished in one hand and a folded up piece of parchment in the other. He stashed this rather quickly when he noticed Ali surveying it quizzically.   
  
‘Yes, he certainly is.’ Ali honestly couldn’t stop herself from smiling at that, lip bitten or not.   
  
Sirius groaned, ‘they’re bloody snogging, aren’t they?’ His handsome features turned up in a very unamused expression.  
  
‘That’s probably putting it lightly.’ Ali replied, and found herself to be staring ahead at nothing as she recalled the scene in her head. She quickly shook it vigorously to rid her mind of the sudden voyeuristic tendencies.  
  
‘This is ridiculous.’   
  
‘What is?’ Ali asked. She felt less of a need to distance herself from the seventh year than usual. Had this scene occurred at the same time last year, surely she would have been shouting at Sirius for some reason or other. It was funny to think that in twelve short months so much had changed. And lately… lately she didn’t find him so… detestable.   
  
‘Starry eyes in there.’ He pouted, motioning his head towards the tapestry. ‘Well he’s completely blind to anything that’s not redheaded and fair skinned now isn’t he?’ He fluttered his eyelashes mockingly then returned to his slouched and angry demeanour.   
  
‘What’s gotten into you? You’re not one to say a bad word against Potter?’ She tried to analyse the situation in her head, but she was unfailingly stupid when it came to perception of people.   
  
‘I’m not saying anything bad. I- you know, I don’t  _care_  or anything.’ He tried to soften his expression to look unfazed, and this was something Ali started to pick up on. His words and expressions were in complete disarray. ‘It’s just- great. Yay. Whoopty doo you’re dating each other now. You don’t have to live in each other’s pockets.’ Sirius sighed and looked away.   
  
Ali stared at him for a while with a very calculating look, then something dawned on her.  
  
‘Are you  _moping_  because Potter is paying Lily more attention than he’s paying  _you_?’ Her jaw dropped in realisation as she held back a laugh. Sirius directed a livid expression towards her as he crossed his arms over his chest.  
  
‘I’m not a bloody girl, Adams.’ He huffed a breath and looked away again.  
  
‘Having feelings doesn’t make you a  _girl_  Black. It makes you a  _human being_.’ She rolled her eyes at him and grabbed the arm of his robes and yanked him back towards the way they’d come from. She looked sideways at him as they came out on the third floor landing. She looked around for Peeves, but it would have seemed he either bored of his display, or Filch had managed to subdue him. Filch was currently muttering angrily as he scrubbed up a rotten tomato from the portrait of Merwyn the Malicious. They began ascending the stairs to the common room together.   
  
As Ali looked to Sirius again, he looked forlorn and pitiful. Suddenly Ali felt the need to comfort him. It was a strange feeling for her. She wasn’t usually the comforting sort. She found such situations awkward and tended to veer away from them if she could. But as she watched Sirius silently climb the stairs beside her, watching his feet taking each step, something pulled her towards him. Ali was certainly a cat person, but cat people still couldn’t resist a whimpering puppy, and that’s exactly what Sirius currently portrayed. Problem was, she really had no idea how to comfort someone.   
  
Sirius began to grumble, ‘James is glued to Evans. Remus is glued to McKinnon whenever he can be. Peter is boring to be around twenty four seven.’ He sighed.  
  
‘Your life sounds so incredibly tragic. Don’t mind me, I’ll just be over here, weeping for you.’ Ali said in a blasé monotone. When she looked to Sirius again, he was giving her a smile. But it seemed forced and didn’t quite make it all the way up to his eyes. He must have really been lonely. She was reminded of their detention study sessions together when Sirius had been so very un-Sirius. She realised quiet strangely that she didn’t like this side of him. Which meant she preferred his normal persona? She contemplated it.  _Certainly not_. This just meant she hated every aspect of him. Yes, that sounded better.   
  
To rid the world of this dejected Black, she decided to attempt the comforting thing to the best of her ability.   
  
‘Uh, Black?’ He hummed a reply, ‘would you- uh-  _mind_ … maybe… showing me a few more pointers with transfiguration? I feel like- uh- I’m getting it a little, you know, better… with your help. Or whatever.’ She pushed out agonisingly, jutting the bottom of her jaw forward, furrowing her brows and rolling her eyes upwards from the sheer effort it took, and the discomfort it caused her to say such a thing to  _Sirius Effing Black_.  
  
Sirius started laughing loudly beside her. She frowned and turned her head to him ready to defend herself as they walked. But Sirius spoke first.  
  
‘How can such a  _pretty_  girl pull such  _ugly_  faces?’   
  
Ali felt her eye twitch, ‘You know what?' Why did she expect any different from this- this- monster! ' _Screw you_ , Black.' Did she imagine what happened between them in the owlery? 'Mister Black, rude is my middle name! Didn’t you know? I get away with anything! Oh, you there! Would you care for a hex? I’d be willing to oblige!’ Aaliyah imitated him, very poorly, shoving him back with her palms and turning to stomp away. She heard Sirius’s laughter behind her still.  
  
‘Stop! Stop! I’m sorry.’ She felt herself jerk backwards as he took hold of her robes. His body was still shaking slightly with laughter and much to her dismay, she found herself to be happy that his previous down mood seemed to momentarily vanish. ‘I didn’t mean it like that. I find them-‘ he suddenly stopped himself and thought about it, ‘-endearing.’ As he finished his sentence he averted her eyes. His expression sobered.  
  
‘Well, then. You can make it up to me by working tirelessly to make sure I receive top of the class for my end of year exams.’ She huffed a defiant breath and held her nose in the air.  
  
‘When I’m through with you Adams, you’ll be teaching McGonagall.’ Sirius gave her a very sly and cunning smile as they reached the portrait of the fat lady together. Ali felt her breath catch in her throat as the expression made his features soften in a way that even Ali had to admit was rudely attractive.  
  
‘Ali!’ Both Sirius and Ali turned around to see Dirk Cresswell running towards them. Strangely enough he seemed to freeze when he noted who she was standing with. His eyes went wide and his body went ridged.  
  
‘Well?’ Ali prompted him, ‘what is it?’ She held a definite air of contempt in her words. She wasn’t exactly happy with Dirk at present. For it seemed he really had been telling people about their encounter at Hogsmeade, however truthful he had been (Ali suspected not entirely) it was mostly due to him that the rumours about them had gotten vastly out of hand.   
  
Dirk was still frozen stiff as he stood before them. His eyes kept flickering from her to Sirius and when Ali allowed herself to glance beside her, Sirius was giving Dirk a face that was very,  _very_  far from friendly. Ali was confused. She'd never even seen these two partake in a conversation before, what was this hostility?   
  
‘Would you get on with it Cresswell!’ Ali bit out tiring instantly of the strange silence.  
  
‘Uh, McGonagall. McGonagall needed to see you about the detention you supervised for Snape and Avery.’ He finished, still glancing nervously to Sirius beside her.  
  
‘Well, you two can sort this weirdness out on your own then. Good day.’ She threw her hands up and left the boys to themselves. Boys were the strangest of creatures sometimes. Surely it would have been easier deciphering ancient hieroglyphs than trying to figure out what the hell was going on there. 


	41. Transfiguration practice

If there was one thing that Sirius Black had learnt over the past two weeks it was that Aaliyah Adams, Gryffindor prefect and all around perfect student was not, by any means, naturally smart. The fact that she seemed to have made it to the top of nearly every one of her classes was an attribute to just how determined she was to succeed. Because teaching her the ways of perfecting transfiguration was like  _pulling a dragon’s teeth_.  
  
‘For  _fuck_  sake Adams!’ Sirius was clawing at his eyes, ‘how did you learn how to talk when you were younger when you couldn’t  _read a book about it_!?’ He threw his head back, flicking his hair out of his face in frustration. They had been sitting in the common room together for over an hour now and Adams  _just couldn’t get it_.   
  
‘How did you manage to get by when you were younger and no one had a physical attraction to you yet!? You  _suck_ at teaching! All you’re good for is looking pretty!’  She threw back in a fury.  
  
‘I happen to have been a very charming ki- wait. You think I’m pretty?’ His anger snapped away in an instant and he grinned across the table at Ali. Her glare faded into a look of mild annoyance.  
  
‘Of  _course_  that’s the only part you heard.’ She shook her head and pulled her transfiguration text back towards herself in a surreptitious manner. Sirius groaned and reached out and pulled it away as he had done some two minutes prior.  
  
‘I said  _no_  more referring to the text!’ This time he shut the book and threw it down beside him. Ali squealed in horror and held a hand up to her mouth in shock. ‘It’s okay Adams, the book is fine. Just attempt the spell again.’ Sirius rolled his eyes at her quivering lip.  
  
‘But I  _told_ you! I haven’t memorised the text on it yet!’ Her fear for the book vanished and her glare returned.   
  
‘You’re not supposed to  _memorize the freaking text_. You’re supposed to attempt the spell and refer to the text if it goes wrong.’  
  
‘What would be the point of attempting the spell if you haven’t memorized the text? How am I supposed to know what I’m  _doing_? Am I supposed to just wave my wand around like a bloody stick fight?’  
  
‘Honestly, are you sure you aren’t muggle born?’  Sirius looked her dead in the eye now.  
  
‘What!? What is that supposed to mean?’ She bit out seeming ready to attack.  
  
‘It’s like you haven’t come from a background of magic at all.’ Sirius shook his head at his words. The way Ali attempted spells was as if she had literally no prior knowledge of magical ability. Sirius was  _certain_  she wasn’t muggleborn. He had seen her parents collecting her from the platform before the summer break and they certainly didn’t  _look_  like muggles.  
  
‘How the hell are you so good at everything? How? Explain yourself! Why don’t you need to study or read, ever?’ She seethed out in short, sharp sentences, crossing her arms over her chest and slumping back in her chair.   
  
‘I don’t  _know_. I just pay attention. Once I read something, I just don’t seem to forget it.’ Sirius shrugged. He had always found learning very simple. Even as a child he learnt things quickly and never needed to read a book over twice to recall parts of it.   
  
Aaliyah’s features suddenly lost their sharp edge as she adopted an expression of wonder, ‘do you have any idea how much I want to smack you right now?’ As she spoke her eyes fixated on him in a very icy manner. Sirius couldn’t help but smile at her. No matter how hard she tried, her most menacing faces only seemed to make him laugh.   
  
‘Just try the spell again.’ He decided not to aggravate her, just yet anyway. Ali sighed and gripped her wand tight staring at the empty jar he had transfigured for her at the start of the hour. Conjuration wasn’t a laughing matter. It was the hardest possible part of transfiguration, and Ali still seemed to be having trouble seamlessly vanishing things. But Sirius was getting bored of going over the same stuff with her, and so advanced her to conjuration for his own benefit.   
  
When she waved her wand and tapped it on the jar, a small spark emitted from the end, but the magic stopped there. Ali groaned loudly and threw her upper body onto the table in disgrace.  
  
Sirius tried not to laugh. The smile twitching on his face began to hurt. He had to distract himself. If he laughed at her, she would surely hit him.  
  
‘What’s your wand type?’ He asked, looking at the light coloured wand still held tight in her hand. Ali stirred and lifted herself off the table to look at him.  
  
‘Cherry. Nine and a half inches. Dragon heartstring. Apparently  _stiff_.’ She recited and rolled her eyes. Sirius wondered if there was a story behind the last two words.  
  
‘Blackthorn. Twelve and a quarter inches. Phoenix feather. Pliable.’ He had to grin at the last word. He, James and Remus all shared that trait in their wands.   
  
‘Did I ask?’ Ali turned her head away with a very light smile adorning her lips. Sirius had noted her level of cheek rising this year.  
  
‘I heard cherry wands are rare?’ He ignored her stab and crossed his arms over each other on the table, resting his chin over his forearms to watch her.   
  
‘I heard blackthorns are unruly?’ She turned back to him with a bored air, but the look in her eyes told Sirius she was paying attention. He stared at her for a moment. Her curls were swept over her left shoulder and looked lighter than they had last year. Her skin still held its usually darkened colour since the holidays. She was fitted perfectly in her uniform, devoid of her robes. Her prefect badge was attached to her Gryffindor cardigan instead. Sirius allowed his eyes to scan down to her collar and tie before lingering on her chest.  
  
‘ _Black_.’ Her word was a warning. He quickly averted his gaze upwards and saw her glare.  
  
‘Sorry. Just admiring your- badge.’ He shrugged trying to cover his smirk, ‘and you’ve got it wrong. Blackthorns aren’t unruly. They’re just known to bond more profoundly to their castor if they share a hardship together. My wand has never given me grief. But it has felt, I don’t know, more loyal since the summer before last.’ For a split second his mother flashed before him flinging dinner plates in his direction, screeching profanities, but he blinked it away before he got trapped in the past.  
  
‘What-‘ Ali seemed to freeze for a second in thought, but then continued when Sirius rested his gaze on her again, ‘what happened that summer?’  
  
Sirius frowned. It wasn’t usually something he brought up, nor something he willingly wanted to discuss as it was still a fresh wound. As brave as it was deciding to leave his family behind, he didn’t feel brave in the slightest when it came to his feelings towards the event. When he recalled the memory, which was more often than he cared to admit, he could almost feel his core drop out of his chest into his abdomen. It made his throat clench and he suddenly was reminded of his little brother’s face when he left him to fend for himself.  
  
He hadn’t really spoken too much about it to James. James had explained the details to Peter and Remus to save him from repeating it. And other than his three best friends, he never really allowed a conversation to progress far enough for someone to pry.   
  
But for some reason he couldn’t completely explain, he felt like he could indulge the prefect, even if it was only a little.  
  
‘I ran away from home.’ He shrugged it off and settled his left cheek on his forearm, looking away from the girl before him.   
  
‘Why?’ She asked. Without moving his head from his relaxed and lazy position he shrugged his shoulders and shut his eyes.  
  
‘’Cause. Wasn’t quite up to the family standards.’ He couldn’t keep the contempt from his voice even though he tried. The way he was facing, he could see the group of third years sitting around the fire all chatting among themselves. He noticed two of the girls whispering and pointing over to him. He just rolled his eyes and propped his head up on his hand to turn his attention back to Ali. She was watching him with a mildly confused look.  
  
‘Your brother seems okay.’   
  
Sirius raised a brow, ‘my brother? He talks to you?’ This was news to Sirius. He was quite certain that his dimwit brother wouldn’t associate with anyone his parents wouldn’t approve of.   
  
‘No, not really. But he has started sitting by me in class. It’s a little odd. He never says a word, but all the classes we have together, he’s there.’ Her dark brows were furrowed in confusion. This unnerved Sirius. What on earth would his brother want with her? ‘Can’t say I mind. He’s better company than the rest of the morons in my year.’ Suddenly her face became quite dark at the mention of her peers.  
  
‘Adams, tell me about yourself.’ Sirius interjected, completely discarding their transfiguration lesson now, ‘I honestly know nothing about you besides you enjoy giving out detentions.’  
  
She frowned at him for a moment, then her expression slowly shifted to confusion. ‘Like, what? What would you want to know?’  
  
‘Like, your family? Where do they come from?’  
  
‘Uh, my dad was brought up in Devon. And my mum’s family are all from around Egypt and Iran.’ She explained but she looked quite confused by the idea of explaining such a trivial fact. ‘Is there a meaning to this?’  
  
Sirius had to smile. Adams was by far the most withdrawn girl he had ever come across. He didn’t want to admit that there was a reason to his questions, and that he wondered if possibly the girl’s bloodline would be pure enough to be acceptable by his family’s standards, ‘no, no meaning. I just realised we’ve spent a lot of time together since you became a prefect and I really don’t know much about you.’  
  
‘Well, detentions aren’t really the place for idle chitchat.’ She gave him an accusatory face and picked up her wand from where she had placed it down after giving up on the conjuration. She waved it again, but there was only a few more sparks this time compared to her prior attempt.  
  
‘Are your family all witches and wizards?’ Sirius asked curiously as he watched her attempt the spell again.  
  
‘Yeah. As far as I know. I’m pretty sure the ones on my mum’s side were all a big part of the wizarding war through Egypt back in the twelve hundreds.’ Her eyes went wide as she spoke about it, ‘my Teta used to tell me all these really  _weird_  stories about it before she died. How they used to bewitch locust to attack muggles and transfigure their water supplies. Really foul stuff. Teta was an absolute nutter though, no idea why Mum named me after her.’ She made a face that spoke a thousand times louder than any amount of words could.  
  
‘You got named after your dead, creepy, old family members too? I was named after my great-grandfather.’ Sirius relaxed his head against his hand with a placid smile.  
  
‘Yeah, fantastic isn’t it? Thanks a bunch for the originality, Mum. Glad Teta was totally sane and everything. Otherwise I might have gotten offended that I was now carrying on the legacy of lunatic that worshiped  _cats_  as a supreme being.’ Ali had a crazed glint in her eye as the sarcasm literally dripped from her voice. Sirius laughed loudly at her outburst burying his face in his arms on the table. When he looked up Ali was biting her lip and looked slightly pink.  
  
‘What about your mum and dad? Are they nice people?’ Ali’s face suddenly turned very serene at his words. It was almost as if she were recalling a most precious memory.  
  
‘My mum and dad are wonderful. My dad’s a bit of a pest, but he really funny. And my mum’s crazy scary when she’s mad, and we butt heads when we’re together for too long. But she’s probably the most loving lady I know.’ As she told her short, yet engrossing descriptions of her parents her face seemed to light up. Sirius was almost entranced by her smile. She was truly a pretty girl, but in that moment Sirius never thought he’d seen anyone so beautiful. He realised his mouth was agape and shut it quickly, regaining himself.  
  
‘They sound really cool. James’s parents are kind of like that. His dad’s sick at the moment, so we’re all kind of worried about that. But his mum is really strong. Never met a more perfect little old lady in my life.’ Sirius smiled back at Ali and for a moment they just kind of stared at each other.  
  
‘W-what about, you know, your parents?’ Ali turned suddenly awkward and seemed to pause after her sentence in wonder. Sirius found her to be so curious sometimes. Her flittering transitions from one emotion to the next was entertaining to watch.  
  
‘My dear old mum’s not the coddling sort. She’s the type of lady that would order the house elf to fix you up if you scraped your knee. Later on she became the type to hurl inanimate objects at you if you spoke out of line. My dad was really anti muggles.  _Hated_  them. Put every enchantment known to man on our house to make sure they couldn’t get near us. Of course we  _had_ to live in London still, regardless of it being primarily muggles, because heaven forbid someone might think the noble house of black weren’t wealthy enough to afford the best.’ For a moment he kind of lost himself in the disdain he held for his family. He caught himself quickly and looked up to Ali.    
  
She was giving him a very strange look. He wasn’t quite sure how to judge it.  
  
‘Your parents sound dreadful.’ She turned her nose up and continued on her thought process.  _Dreadful_? Dreadful. Yes, Sirius thought, yes they were. For a moment, he enjoyed her frankness. ‘Do you miss them?’ That caught him off-guard.   
  
‘What?’  
  
‘Do you miss them? I mean, I don’t know what it’s like having parents you aren’t very fond of. But, they’re still your parents. Right? I expect no matter what parents did, their children would still love them.’ She seemed to be contemplating her own words. Sirius didn’t know how to reply. No, he didn’t miss his parents. He didn’t. He couldn’t. The two of them became rather quiet where they sat alone in the common room. Sirius heard rustling from across the table and when he looked back up again, Ali had adopted his position. They sat across from each other, both resting their chins on their forearms, seemingly oblivious to all the chatting students around them.  
  
‘I don’t think I  _should_  miss them.’ Sirius answered honestly. There was a lingering silence between them.  
  
‘But, you do?’ Suddenly Sirius felt very eerie, like the prefect across from him was reading his mind. Which he knew was wildly impossible because unless she had been reading books on legilimency since age four, such complicated magic would be lost on her. He didn’t answer. He didn’t think missing his parents was the right way of putting it. He couldn’t have possibly have missed Orion and Walburga. They were literally the personification of what not to do in regards to parenting.   
  
But there was something he felt. He thought running away would have solved all his problems, and mostly it had. But there was an emptiness he felt knowing he no longer belonged to a family, even one that despised him. The Potter’s accepted him in, and he would be been eternally grateful for that, but there was something different about knowing he didn’t belong fully at the Potter’s. Funny thing was, he never felt like he really belonged to his own family either. He despised them. Suddenly his head began to hurt from the place his thoughts were travelling to, and then he felt warmth come over his right hand, where it was resting over his left elbow.  
  
He jerked his head up to see Adams looking rather peculiar. Her entire face reeked of confusion and maladroit as she slowly tapped her palm over the back of his hand in what he supposed was an attempt to comfort him. She was casting weary looks around the room at students watching them. Sirius felt a smile tug his lips before he started laughing.  
  
‘Hey! I’m trying to comfort you! You’re not supposed to laugh at me.’  
  
‘You’re absolutely rubbish at that Adams.’ He shook his head but before she could retract her hand, he grabbed it with his own and gripped it tight. ‘But, thanks.’ She became quite ridged at his words and touch. He decided to ignore her awkwardness though, and continued to hold her surprisingly long, delicate fingers in his own. He recalled the memory from months ago when he had awoken to her by his bedside in the hospital wing. She had been assaulting his person and before he knew who it was, he’d grabbed her. That day she seemed to retract her hand the second she could. Between them now, as Sirius gripped onto her, he expected her to yank backwards and possibly yell at him. Funnily enough, the shouting didn’t come.   
  
It took a few moments of a very perplexed look on her face, but eventually she started to relax and to Sirius’s surprise, weakly gripped his hand back. The room around them went completely ignored as the two allowed their eyes to connect and for the first time in Sirius’s life, he felt his heart rate quicken in his chest over a girl.   
  
‘Adams, I-‘ But before Sirius could allow himself to speak the words he suddenly wanted to say, the portrait hole opened and someone came screaming inside.  
  
‘PADFOOT! PADFOOT! HAS ANYONE SEEN-‘ James Potter almost fell over, he was climbing through the portrait hole so fast, ‘-AH!’ he registered his best friend over on the far side of the circular room and ran towards him, almost tripping over on the way, thrice. All attention in the common room turned to James, and as he approached, Sirius quickly let go of Ali and straightened himself up.  
  
‘Padfoot! Padfoot I’m so sorry mate I completely forgot it’s your- ah, am I interrupting something?’ James asked, registering who Sirius was now sitting with as he fixed his glasses on his face. Both students looked thoroughly flustered as they distanced themselves from each other on either side of the table.   
  
‘No!’ They both shouted in return.  
  
‘Uh, well, Padfoot. I’m so sorry. I’ve been the worst friend lately. And then I was just writing down the date on some of the forms I was filling out with Lily for Head duties and- I’m so sorry. I’m  **so** sorry. I have to make it up to you. I can’t let this slide I’m actually the scum on the bottom of the black lake. But I have a plan! There’s something you  _have_  to see! Like  _right_  now! So, GET UP!’ James made very excited movements with his hands, bouncing on the spot.   
  
Sirius assumed he must have realised what today was. Usually James always made a bit of a fuss over his birthday. But when he had awoken this morning, James had already gone down to quidditch practice. They had lost their match against Slytherin last week and James had been  _livid_  about it. Not to mention he now had Lily and Head Boy duties to attend to. It did seem he was losing his best friend altogether. Peter had been there in the morning to give him a present of course, but Remus had been dead to the world asleep still.   
  
He’d opened his packages from Mr and Mrs Potter and another that had been placed by his bedside the night before from Remus while Peter sat with him. He stowed them away and expected he would have heard from James later. But throughout the day, when many girls around the school had approached him with ‘happy birthday’s and small tokens of their affections, which Sirius had politely accepted, James had sat with Lily in classes and barely spoken a word to Sirius. This was the same behaviour he had been exhibiting since he and Lily began dating. Sirius was getting used to it and chose not to dwell on the fact that his birthday seemed to have been forgotten by his best friend.   
  
But for the life of him he couldn’t hold a grudge against James. It had been  _weeks_  since James had even remembered Sirius existed in his Evans induced coma. So whatever it was he had planned, even if it was a piece of rotten pumpkin pie with a match in it, whatever it was James wanted to show him, Sirius wanted to go. He quickly turned to Adams.  
  
‘Uh, will you be alright?’ He asked her. She was watching James bounce around with unease. She quickly snapped her attention back to him and a blush rose to her cheeks.  
  
‘What? Yes. Honestly, it’s not like you were even  _teaching_  me anything. You’re a terrible teacher. I’ll learn better on my own. So- piss off, the both of you. So  _loud_. Merlin.’ She mumbled, grabbing the transfigured jar and drawing it into her chest. She seemed to refuse to look Sirius in the eye. But for the time being, Sirius couldn’t linger to decipher why.   
  
‘Alright, alright.’ Sirius frowned at her but quickly jumped up from his seat. Without so much as a fleeting goodbye James grabbed him and dragged him from the common room while every set of eyes watched them retreat.


	42. Full moon moods

‘I am  _very_  disappointed in you.  _All_  of you. Especially you Potter! Head Boy! I expect the representative for our school to be on his best behaviour at  _all_  times!’ McGonagall yelled across her desk at the four boys before her. She was standing in front of her chair, too livid to be seated. Remus could feel his eyes stinging. He was so tired. And irritated by their professor’s loud voice. He could never explain why the moon cycles always made him so moody. But he couldn’t really help it. He tried to control it the best he could, and it was getting easier with age, but this close to the full moon, control was at a loss.   
  
The full moon was a night off, so he had certainly felt worse. But as McGonagall chastised them for getting caught bewitching the equipment of Professor Ogden, their new defence against the dark arts teacher, to attack him during their class- Remus felt less compliant than usual. Any other week he would have been apologising profusely and trying to make amends. But currently he looked less apologetic than any of them.  
  
‘A prefect  _and_  the Head Boy. Honestly! In all my years here,  _never_  have our positions of authority ever had such a blatant disrespect for the rules.’  
  
‘Well at least it made his class a little more tolerable.’ Sirius spoke beside Remus under his breath. Remus had to fight the urge not to laugh. He snorted a little and tried to cover it with a cough.  
  
‘I beg your pardon Black?’  McGonagall directed her sharp penetrating look at Sirius behind her square spectacles.  
  
Sirius barely contemplated the consequences before he spoke again, ‘I  _said_ , at least it made his class a little more tolerable.’ He replied clearly. McGonagall’s lips became so thin, it almost seemed as if they had vanished from her face entirely.  
  
‘He is a rather rubbish teacher, all he does is read us excerpts from the text. We could do that ourselves.’ Everyone in the office turned to Remus as if he had sprouted a second head. Even McGonagall seemed to be at a loss for words.   
  
‘You should employ Moony, Professor. I reckon he’d be a better teacher than Ogden. He’s top of the class after all.’ James piped in, ‘no idea how he knows so much about subduing dark creatures? Maybe it’s just a natural flare?’  
  
‘Could be a gift?’ Sirius joined in with a smirk, pushing his chair onto its back legs lazily.  
  
‘Definitely a gift.’ James nodded along while Peter snickered to the other side of him.   
  
McGonagall sighed, ‘Be that as it may, he is still a teacher boys, and nothing gives a student the right to use magic against their superiors. All four of you will be serving detention when I figure out a suitable time and place for you to do so.’ As she said this her eyes lingered on Remus. She finally sat back in her chair and waved her arms out towards the four of them.  
  
‘Go. Potter, go down to the kitchens and fetch Lupin something to eat. He looks like he could use a sandwich.’ McGonagall had long ago figured out the boys knew of the entrance to the kitchens. She shook her head as the boys all stood and gathered around Remus. As they walked from the room, James strode off ahead of them, while Sirius and Peter fell back into step to either side of Remus. Although he couldn’t quite control the depressive and dark feelings that seemed to consume him on the nights leading up to the full moon, he found them to wane severely thanks to the three boys he called friends.  
  
‘Hey, toss the kitchens, you guys take him up to the dorm, I’m going to fetch him some stuff from honeydukes.’ James nodded to them before racing off ahead to the staircase where he would be climbing up to the third floor and using the one-eyed witch passage to secure Remus’s favourite mood-lifting remedy.   
  
Remus was almost about to argue against it, but James was as quick on his feet as he was on a broom. Although he was definitely more graceful in the air. Remus knew that chocolate wasn’t a cure to his lycanthropy. But when he was a young boy learning to deal with his monthly transitions, he had gone to his mother once in tears on the eve of a full moon. He had been terrified of changing. It was the most painful thing he’d ever experienced. And the thought that a beast burst forth and took control of his body once a month was far too much for a seven year old to accept willingly. He didn’t like knowing that he had a dark beast inside of him, lying in wait.  
  
His mother had knelt down before him and touched her forehead to his with a calm smile.  _‘In my world baby boy, dogs and things alike are allergic to chocolate. If you eat this chocolate, it will poison him. He will be weak, and you will have power over him when he comes out.’_ After Hope’s words, Remus had taken the bar of chocolate his mother had for him and ate the entire thing before even getting to the kitchen table to sit down. To a seven year old this explanation made perfect sense. It had calmed him. His mother’s quiet and caring nature was what led him to grow into the man he was today.  
  
And as he grew up, and learnt that chocolate really had no true effect on those suffering from lycanthropy, he found eating it still comforted him. His mother always had a stash for him when he was home for the holidays and his friends made a point of bestowing him with extraordinary amounts while they were at school. As they made their way up the stairs to the Gryffindor tower, Sirius reached an arm up around Remus’s neck.  
  
‘How about we all haul up in the dorm for the night?’ He suggested and for a moment the idea very much appealed to Remus. Then he remembered the promise he had made earlier that day.  
  
He sighed, ‘I told Marlene I’d spend the night with her actually. She’s getting rather difficult about why I won’t tell her when I’m “sick”.’ Remus used his index and middle fingers to punctuate the word ‘sick’ as if it caused him great pain to refer to such a disgusting part of his life so glibly.  
  
‘Understood mate. Guy’s got to do what a guy’s got to do.’ Sirius let him loose and winked at him. ‘But, do you think maybe you should tell her?’  
  
Remus almost rounded on Sirius, but stopped himself just as he drew in a breath to yell. As angry and dark as his mood was, he couldn’t argue with Sirius on this. He was right. There was only so many times he could get sick around the full moon and expect Marlene not to start coming up with reasons why. Lily was even aware, and Remus had fully expected her to relay the information she learnt to her best friend. But Lily was far too kind to do such a thing. Only very sour and lowly human beings would be so cruel as to out someone for something they themselves couldn’t help.   
  
As they reached the seventh floor, Sirius touched a hand to his shoulder, ‘Hey? We’ll be up in the dorm waiting for you. Don’t take too long with her, alright?’ Sirius winked at him and stepped through the portrait hole first. Peter gave him a weak smile before clambering through and following off along behind Sirius. Remus stood quietly on his own for a moment before the Fat Lady protested to being left open, and he eventually ducked through to the other end.   
  
He was instantly greeted with the low chatting of the other Gryffindor students. Everyone was around, paired off into groups. Some doing homework, others just relaxing. He noticed Lily, Mary and Marlene at a table going over their books and winced. Marlene was becoming harder and harder to keep in the dark. And it was becoming harder and harder for Remus to continue denying her his complete and undivided affections. They had been dating for close to six months now and hadn’t progressed much further than kissing. Marlene would make a complaint about it at least once a week.   
  
But Remus just couldn’t do that to her. He believed she deserved more. More than he himself could offer. Although he felt a most warm and filling emotion while around her, he didn’t think that was anything to praise himself for. He was lying to her. And she made him feel so good inside. She was so gentle with him when he was in his moods. She would play with his hair and lay sweet kisses on the end of his nose. She was a loud character and the loudness always had a comforting effect on him. It drew his attention outward instead of festering on inside himself over his afflictions and causing him even more grief.  
  
He  _couldn’t_  tell Marlene what he was. He couldn’t handle the rejection. And most of all, he didn’t want to see the look on her face when she found out she had put her trust in him only to be told he had been lying to her for the better half of a year just to satisfy his own selfish needs. His eyes began to sting again as he reached her chair and he stood tall behind her. Lily looked up to him with a kind smile while Mary scribbled something onto a spare piece of parchment.   
  
‘Hi Remus.’ Lily’s words made Marlene nearly knock her chair over she turned around so fast.  
  
‘Hey you!’ She jumped up and seized his lips before he could even contemplate what she was doing. She wound her arms up around him as he stood at least a head, if not more, taller than her now. It did seem as if he would never stop growing.  
  
He closed his arms around her waist and allowed the kiss, as it instantly calmed him.   
  
‘Get a room! Gee!’ Mary’s voice caused them to break apart and Marlene turned and threw something at her.  
  
‘Who’s your love letter to Mary? Huh?’ Marlene snapped but Remus saw her face turn to a smile as she spun back and took his hand in her own. ‘Come on, let’s find a couch.’ As Marlene dragged him off, Remus watched as Mary’s face went bright red when Lily craned her neck to try and get a glimpse at the letter. Mary then threw her arms over it and began fumbling over her words.   
  
‘Are you alright? You don’t look so good.’ Marlene asked as she found an empty armchair by the window. Looking down at the one seater, Remus knew it would be futile to argue that there wasn’t enough room for the both of them. He sighed and took a seat, waiting for Marlene to perch herself on top of him.  
  
‘I’m-‘ he started but lost his words as Marlene plonked herself in his lap, hard as she could. He almost felt winded as she grinned at him. She lay a kiss on his cheek and brushed the hair to the left side of his face. ‘-alright.’ He finished shaking his head lightly at her.   
  
She just smiled and curled into his body with her legs dangling over the armrest. Remus shifted her slightly so he, too, was comfortable and they sat in silence for a long while, just listening to each other’s breath. Remus felt his damp mood trickling away as she dragged her fingernails lightly over his chest next to where her head was rested. He didn’t think he deserved someone as compliant as Marlene.   
  
She asked him time and time again why he continuously got sick, but he lied as much as he could. He knew Marlene as the kind of person that didn’t really take no for an answer, and so the fact that she seemed to give up on her battle meant she was ignoring her own personality traits to fit in with Remus. And he couldn’t even tell her the truth. He was a coward. He didn’t deserve to be in the common room of the house of brave.  
  
‘You’re warm.’ Marlene whispered reaching her hand up and playing with the hair at the nape of his neck.  
  
‘You’re beautiful.’ He said, pressing a kiss to her forehead as she looked up to him. She smiled as she pulled him down to capture his lips once more. She repositioned herself to press her chest against his own and he felt his body go rigid. Remus was a guy, and no matter how polite and sweet he could be at the best of times, he was still a guy. And having his girlfriend push her breast into his chest definitely made her position on his lap less comfortable.  
  
‘Marlene.’ He pushed her back, breaking the kiss.  
  
‘What?’  
  
‘You know perfectly  _well_  what.’ He gave her a cold look that wouldn’t have dared come out had it been any other night of the month.   
  
‘Remus, if you don’t start being honest with me, I’m going to shove veritaserum down your throat.’ Her face turned cross and it was an expression that looked completely foreign on her.   
  
‘What do you mean, honest?’ For a fleeting second his heart rate picked up. Did she know? Did Lily give in and tell her?  
  
‘Why are you so scared of getting close to me? It’s not like you don’t enjoy it. I can  _feel_  that you enjoy it.’ She finished and Remus relaxed. Once again, it was only about sex.  
  
‘I just- you don’t understand.’ He frowned looking away from her.  
  
‘Then  _help me to_.’ She snapped pulling his face back to look at her. Remus felt suddenly guilty. Usually he would have apologised and tried to make up some kind of excuse, but in his current mood, it bypassed apologetic and took a turn straight towards rage.  
  
‘No. You don’t understand, and you never  _will_  Marlene. I’m not good for you.’ He stood up taking her with him and let her down easily turning away towards the window.  
  
‘I think it’s up to me to decide what’s good for me and what isn’t, thanks.’ Marlene bit out standing behind him.  
  
‘Well clearly you’re not very good at choosing then because you’ve picked the wrong guy.’  
  
‘Shut up Remus. I’m sick of this pathetic pity party shit. Don’t you get it?’  
  
‘Pity party?’ He turned to her, ‘Pity party? I’m not having a pity party! I’m trying to do what’s right by you!’  
  
‘By not allowing me to make decisions for myself!?’ She shouted back and Remus felt the eyes of the common room turning on them. It only served to increase his anger.  
  
‘You can make your own decisions, that’s fine, but I’m making my own, too. And I think it’s about time we give up on trying to make this work.’ His reply was low, and as the words left his mouth he came to the realization of what he had said.  
  
‘What?’ Marlene pulled up short. Her arms dropping from where she had crossed them over her chest to hang by her sides.  
  
‘You heard me. It isn’t working. I don’t know why I even allowed it to get this far. It’s a joke.’ In his rage, he continued on with his train of thought.  
  
‘I- what?’ The colour looked to be draining from her cheeks. Remus frowned looking away from her. ‘A- a joke? What do you mean it’s a joke?’  
  
‘I mean the two of us together. We don’t fit at all. It’s ridiculous.’ He could feel his whole body shaking slightly in the pain it took to force the words out of his mouth.  
  
‘Are-‘ Marlene stopped as her breathing hastened as if tears were about it interrupt her question. ‘Are you serious?’  
  
Remus didn’t speak. They stood silent for a moment. This wasn’t what he had planned at all. It wasn’t what he wanted at all. Far from it. But he was so furious with himself for leading her on. He was so furious that he allowed himself to become so attached to a girl that didn’t deserve the plague that was his life. He couldn’t drag her any further down. He just couldn’t do it. So, he allowed his moon induced rage to take control and put a stop to it.  
  
‘Yes.’ He spoke finally. But his word was weak and shaky. He wasn’t serious at all, but he hoped she had missed that.  
  
‘I- Remus I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to push you into anything. Tell- tell me what I’ve done wrong. I’m sorry.’ She stepped closer to him and placed her hands on his chest. Remus immediately pushed her off, not wanting her to see the resolve on his face faltering.   
  
‘No. Just- just go away. I don’t want this anymore. I- I didn’t want it in the first place. Just- just leave it. It can’t work anyway.’  
  
‘Why? Why can’t it work? I don’t get this at all Remus.’ He could hear the heightened pitch to her voice and knew there would be tears forming in her eyes. He  _could not_  view that. He would surely shatter if he saw that.  
  
‘Just leave it alone.’ He spoke once more, his voice cracking as he pushed by her.  
  
‘Moony?’ It was James. He had just returned and his robe pockets looked to be bursting. He looked quickly over to where Marlene was stood, frozen to the spot and placed a hand on his shoulder, ‘you alright mate?’  
  
‘Just leave me alone!’ Remus shouted and flicked James’ hand off of him and charged off towards the stairs. His long legs easily took the stairs two at a time, and in no time at all he was before his dorm door, flinging it open and storming inside. Peter and Sirius jumped at the sudden noise from where they were hovering around Remus’s bed. Remus noticed they had been tidying up. They looked behind him as James came into the door way and shut the door behind him.   
  
Without saying a word, Remus strode over to his bed, pulled off his robes and jumper and fell face first into his freshly made sheets. He heard the boys around him whispering. He refused to allow himself to surface for air as he could feel tears forming between his lids.   
  
Suddenly he felt three dead weights settle on the bed around him.   
  
‘Hey, so get this, I heard Lucinda Talkalot, the Slytherin quidditch captain, has a huge thing for you Prongs.’ Peter spoke casually.  
  
‘Ha, so now the girls start forming a line when the stupid fat head is taken? I told them all years ago to get in there.’ Sirius now.   
  
‘Yeah, I mean, she’s okay. Great quidditch player and all. But she’s in sixth year. And you guys know I’m into older women.’  
  
‘Evan’s is like, two months older than you Prongs.’ Peter again.  
  
‘Exactly. I like the older, sophisticated sort. You know how it is? I’ll leave the youngins to Padfoot.’ A shift in the weight of the bed and a yelp from James said that Sirius had certainly laid hands on him. Remus could feel a dark force suffocating him from the pain currently in his chest. But as the boys chatted and laughed around him, he allowed himself to flop over and breathe fresh air again. He didn’t attempt to wipe his eyes.  
  
‘Hey, I got you some stuff Moony.’ James smiled at him pulling out chocolates from his pockets and splaying them out around the bed.   
  
‘Shove over Wormtail, let the man get under his own blankets.’ Sirius kicked Peter off the bed and with a thud and a groan, Peter appeared again rubbing his backside. Remus couldn’t smile, he was much too angry with himself, but he let a very small cough like laugh forth. Sirius pulled back his blankets and Remus moved forwards to get under them. Once he was comfortable, Peter got back atop the bed again and Sirius, Peter and James all made themselves at home.   
  
James flicked his wand out and levitated the blankets to them from their surrounding beds and the boys all wrapped themselves up still chatting casually. Sirius pulled the drapes around one side, while Peter imitated him with the other and the boys made their usual coming-up-to-the-full-moon-fort. It was a thing they did for Remus when he was having trouble controlling his emotions. When he would become depressed or angry for no reason and yell at the boys, they would ignore him and push him into bed and gather around. They would continue to ignore him if he protested and just shoved a bar of chocolate in his mouth.   
  
Remus lay his right cheek down on his pillows and watched his friends push each other around. Sirius jumped up, ducking out behind the drapes and collected some magazines from his bedside. When he returned he chucked them onto the mound in the middle of the bed that was Remus’s body. They all collected one each and started talking about the motorbikes and the half-naked muggle women on them.  
  
‘You should stick them up around your place now that you’ve got it.’ Peter laughed.  
  
‘Nah, I mean, the main reason I put them up was to piss off my mum.’ Sirius grinned.   
  
‘Plus, I reckon Adams wouldn’t approve when he has her over.’ James joked waggling his eyebrows behind his glasses.  
  
‘Get over it Prongs. Not everyone is girl fixated like you.’ As the words left his mouth, he seemed to freeze up however, and all eyes suddenly turned on Remus. There was a cool silence as they watched for his reaction at the mention of girls in the current situation.  
  
‘You seem pretty fixated on one to me.’ Remus shrugged and pulled the blankets over his head. He felt the boys on the bed all shifting in their positions.  
  
‘Oh is that  _right_  Moody-Moony?’ He heard Sirius say before the blankets were retched from him. Suddenly James had descended on him and was messing up his hair, laughing all the while. Once he was free, and could feel the tears on his face drying, he didn’t have much time to register the chocolate bar being shoved into his mouth.  
  
‘Eat.’ Sirius demanded as Peter laughed and clapped to his other side. Remus bit into the chocolate as the boys started to converse among themselves again and he tried to focus less on what had happened downstairs. It was easier to do with the racket the boys were making. Since as young as twelve years old the boys had figured out how to best deal with Remus. To this day, there was no one on the earth that understood him better.


	43. Siblings by default

Lily Evans was a strong, independent woman that needed  _no_  man. But in so saying, that didn’t mean she didn’t  _want_  one. One very specific one. One with astonishingly messy black hair and glasses. One that aggravated her just as much as he excited her. One that somehow managed to excel at all his classes despite being rather cavalier towards the idea of study. One that could be an incredible bully in the  _same breath_  as being incredibly kind. One that had served more detentions than nearly their entire year  _combined_ , and yet managed to be chosen as Head Boy. One that was by far the greatest quidditch player in their entire school, which made her weak at the knees. Which she would  _never_  tell him. Because then his aggravating side would rear its ugly head and she would be forced to beat him to  _death_. And she rather enjoyed him of late.  
  
Lily Evans, who was currently standing through a care of magical creatures lesson, refused to admit that the reason she was looking up to the castle at two minute intervals was in a futile attempt to see said messy haired boy. It was a ridiculous notion, James was definitely sitting in muggle studies and wouldn’t be standing at the castle doors. Thinking of James in muggle studies suddenly made Lily smile. For knowing that he took such a class meant he, unlike others throughout her life, accepted her for exactly who  _she_  was.   
  
When she found herself smiling for no reason other than the image of James Potter before her eyes, she suddenly sobered. Beside her stood her best friend, Marlene McKinnon. Marlene for the last week had not been herself. Looking from her pretty blonde friend, across the class to another of her friends, she saw that Remus Lupin had certainly looked better. He had fresh scars on his face and Lily expected they probably extended to other parts of his body. They could not be seen though as it was the beginning of winter and everyone in their class was well rugged up.   
  
Remus kept glancing towards them, and his expression seemed dead. Marlene had cried into Lily’s lap for an entire night as she and Mary had rubbed her back last week. Remus had ended their relationship out of nowhere. To Marlene it seemed completely unmerited and strange. Lily unfortunately knew better. Remus had told her he was “no good for her”. Marlene had sobbed that she couldn’t understand what he meant. But Lily knew. She suddenly felt very guilty for how well her relationship seemed to be fairing in comparison. She reached a hand up and took Marlene’s in it. She knew it must have been hard sharing so many classes with Remus.   
  
When she looked back to Remus, his head was facing downwards. For the rest of their class Lily felt a pang of guilt for Remus, who in the current situation looked like the bad guy to onlookers. Lily knew he would most certainly be hurting just as much as Marlene. If not more. Boys could be fickle at their age, but for Remus to just turn around out of the blue and tell Marlene their relationship was a joke and he was done with it? That sounded to Lily a little more like a cover up.  
  
As she held Marlene’s hand back up to the castle, thankful that Professor Kettleburn had only given them a theory class today about differentiating between specific dragons through their markings and hides, she decided she wanted to see how Remus was coping, also. After classes they made their way up to Gryffindor tower, having to evade Peeves who was doing his upmost to make sure every picture on the grand staircase was ever so slightly off centre. The portraits were all discussing their new positions heatedly as they crossed through into each other’s frames, pointing at Peeves as he cackled maliciously.   
  
‘Do you want me to help you with your Transfiguration essay, Marls?’ Mary asked as they strategically crossed the common room, dodging where Remus stood in a lax circle talking to Peter and James. Lily only let her eyes linger on James’s back half a second longer than she deemed necessary.   
  
‘I don’t know. Whatever.’ Marlene shrugged as they climbed the stairs up to their dorm. Once inside she crossed the distance to her bed, dropped her bag effortlessly to the floor, pulled her blanket back and climbed into the warmth without even taking off her school robes. Mary looked to Lily with a face of worry. When they looked back to Marlene they just barely saw her hand pop out from under the mass of blankets grasping her wand before the drapes around her bed flung shut.  
  
Lily saw Mary wince out the corner of her eye as it happened and moved forward to speak, ‘you’ll… you’ll let us know if you need anything, yeah?’ she asked with furrowed brows.  
  
All that was registered in return was a solemn grunt. The two friends exchanged glances. Marlene had never been like this before. She had dated her fair share of boys in the past. She was an exuberant, charming girl. She made people laugh. Mostly she ended relationships when she bored of them. This had to be the first time she had ever exhibited anything other than mild apathy after one going sour. Mary went and sat on Lily’s bed beside Marlene’s and Lily sighed.  
  
‘I’m going to see James for a bit. Let me know if she resurfaces.’ She whispered putting her things down and deciding to stay in her uniform for now. Mary nodded and crossed her legs on the bed despite it not being her own.   
  
Lily left the room in low spirits and set off downstairs to where she had seen the boys. But once she arrived in the common room they were nowhere to be seen. Having been into their dorm more than a few times since she and James had started dating two months ago she deemed it acceptable to venture up on her own again now. She climbed up the four flights of stairs to their dorm and stopped at the door. It was unusually quiet. Remus must have been in there on his own. She knocked lightly and stepped in quietly when no reply came.   
  
Of course the room was putrid, as always. She had to step over an assortment of dirty clothing and discarded wrappers to get inside the room fully before she could look up. To her shock it was devoid of one werewolf, boyfriend and boyfriend’s shorter friend. Sirius Black however stared back at her from his bed. He looked bored and unimpressed and she felt instantly awkward.  
  
‘Oh sorry, I was just looking for-'  
  
‘James isn’t here.’ He cut her off and looked back down at the book before him where he lay on his stomach, the bed was lacking any kind of blanket or sheets.   
  
‘Actually,’ her eye twitched somewhat, ‘I wasn’t looking for James.’  
  
‘Ha, that’s a new one. Are you trying out for a comedy gig, Evans?’ He chuckled to himself but it sounded hollow and mirthless.   
  
She had noticed the quite apparent lack of niceties between Sirius and herself this school year. Not that she and Sirius had ever had a rolling repute, but he was usually quite forthcoming when she would put James down. He liked to annoy James as much as she did and for that reason, usually they got along when they were in close enough contact. But since she and James started dating it was as if she had jumped to the top of Sirius Black’s indifference list. It was a  _long_  list. And Lily wasn’t the kind of girl to just put up with condescending comments or being ignored.  
  
‘I’m looking for Remus  _actually_. Where is he?’ Her sentence was crisp as she watched Sirius reading over a textbook. She frowned, as it was a very odd thing to see him doing.  
  
‘He left for the library a few minutes ago. Said he wanted some silent company.’ Sirius shrugged, not even bothering to look up. But Lily noted the smile that crossed his face almost seamlessly as he mentioned “silent company”.  
  
‘What are you reading?’ She asked, not being able to hide her confusion at seeing him, what  _looked_  to be, studying. As she moved over to his fourth of the room Sirius still did not look up. She cleared her throat when no reply came.   
  
He sighed, ‘it is called a transfiguration textbook. People apparently read them when they want to learn how to practice transfiguration. Or, idiots read them too much and  _suck_  at transfiguration.’  
  
This sentence was completely lost on Lily. When she looked down she realised it was the sixth year passages of their text that he was reading, not their new seventh year ones further towards the back. This completely baffled her.  
  
‘You’re top of the class Black, why on earth are you studying  _last_  year’s material?’ Once this question fell out of her mouth Sirius snapped the copy shut and pushed himself into a sitting position.  
  
‘Is there something you wanted? James isn’t here. He went off with Wormtail to get something to cheer Moony up.’ The look he gave her from where he sat was icy. Lily was at a loss for words. Since when had Sirius Black ever displayed tendencies that didn’t include indifference or humour inducing qualities?  
  
‘What crawled up your arse and died, Black?’ Lily spat, ‘ever since James and I started dating you’ve been sulking like a fourteen year old girl at a Beatles concert.’  
  
‘At a  _what_?’ Sirius frowned, a little taken aback.  
  
‘Oh nevermind, but if you have something to say then say it. Stop moping, because you’re making this harder on James.’  
  
‘Oh yeah, because  _James_  is having such a hard time lately, isn’t he? Sneaking off to spend every spare second with his  _girlfriend_. I don’t have time for this.’ Sirius nothing short of pouted and turned to face another direction.   
  
‘Are you  _kidding_  right now?’ Lily stared at him in shock, ‘are you  _sulking_  because your  _boyfriend_  is spending more time with  _me_?’ This awarded her his attention. ‘Let me tell you something Sirius Black you are being a damn five year old child right now. Do you have any idea what’s going on for James at the moment?’ She paused for a reply. Sirius didn’t seem to have anything and shrugged.  
  
‘James is  _Head Boy_. Do you think we just snog in a room together when we’re alone? Do you have any idea what we have to do? We’re in control of the entire student body. We have to represent every student at Hogwarts. Students come to us every  _day_  with new problems. We have to solve them, we don’t go to the professors. We have to go between the students and the professors, not to mention the school’s board of governor with proposed ideas. We have to organise meetings. We  _run_  patrols. Every prefect comes to us for advice and the go ahead for any detentions or problems. We still have to  _do_ patrols. Do you know how boring patrols are?  _Do you_? And if that’s not enough, James has to get up early every morning to run quidditch, too, or have you forgotten he’s also quidditch captain?  
  
               ‘He wakes up earlier than anyone and he’s been beating himself up over losing to Slytherin, he blames himself entirely. The whole teams looks up to him and rely on him, so he’s been run ragged with those responsibilities, too. He’s trying his damn best and I haven’t been the most accommodating girlfriend. I whine and complain that I want to see him more. So he tries to fit in romantic little dates with me, too, and then to top it off he fits in time for you boys. He loves you three.’ Lily was so worked up in her speech she hadn’t noticed herself moving forwards until the end of Sirius’s bed stopped her. In turn, Sirius was moving further up the bed towards where his pillows  _should_ have been.  
  
‘All he ever does is talk about you. He adores you Sirius Black. You’re his  _brother_. He would cut off his own leg if it meant making you laugh. The day he forgot your birthday he was with me writing up letters to the Hogwarts board of governors about finalizing next terms Hogsmeade trip and I thought he was going to cry when he realised the date. He felt  _so_ terrible. He barely got the words out before he raced to find you. And what are you doing? Sitting in here being a sad sack about him not playing pranks with you every second day? Making him feel even worse than he already does? Shame on you, Sirius Black. Shame on you.’ As Lily finished she heaved out a huge breath, hands on her hips and stared at Sirius.   
  
Sirius blinked back, holding onto his copy of  _A Guide to Advance Transfiguration_. For a moment there was a dead silence between them. Sirius lowered his head and began examining the pattern on his mattress quite closely.  
  
‘I-' he stopped, ‘I didn’t realise he was so busy.’  
  
‘No. Because he doesn’t want you to think he doesn’t have time for you.’ Lily watched Sirius as he placed the book down and shuffled to the side of his bed, putting his left leg over the edge followed by his right. He held onto the mattress to either side of him and stared down at the floor for a moment and suddenly Lily realized she may have gone a little far. How long had her monologue just lasted? Surely there was more than one thing she had just blurted out that James didn’t want Sirius to know. Probably mostly the stuff about him trying to be romantic. Lily Evans, blabbermouth extraordinaire.  
  
‘Evans?’ Sirius spoke towards the floor. Lily shook herself out of her own head and came around to take a seat beside him.  
  
‘Yes, Black?’ She asked, focusing on the same pillow Sirius seemed to be.  
  
‘You’ll look after him, won’t you?’ Lily felt warmth swirl around inside her from the light and polite tone he adopted. Sirius Black had always been a strange case. Everyone knew he’d come from a pureblood family and he certainly displayed it in a lot of areas. But then he also acted up to counter it. Mostly he was obnoxious and rude when he wasn’t ignoring you altogether. But then there were chosen times when Sirius Black was uncharacteristically polite and regal even.  
  
‘As if he needs me to look after him. He has you for that.’ Lily bumped her shoulder into his own, swaying them slightly.   
  
‘Clearly I’m rubbish at it. You picked up on all that while I just thought of myself.’ Sirius stopped and seemed to contemplate something.   
  
‘For a while-' he took a breath as if the thing he was about to admit was hard for him to push out, ‘-for a while I didn’t like you, you know? In third year.’  
  
‘I knew.’ Lily smirked. Sirius was incredibly cruel to her that year. That was the year he learnt not to test her when it came to hexes.  
  
‘It was because everyone knew James liked you, but you never did anything about it. I thought you were a bit of an idiot.’ Sirius said this so quietly Lily had to lean closer to catch it.  
  
‘Well, the two of you were complete jerks that year, you’re aware of that right? He might have seemed like a catch to you but he used to trip me over in the hallway, Sirius.’ Lily shook her head reminiscing. She heard Sirius let loose one of his bark-like laughs.  
  
‘We weren’t that bad, were we?’  
  
‘ _Were_? Let me tell you something Black, one day you are going to look back on your school years and go, “Wow, James and I were kind of arrogant berks at school weren’t we?” and the two of you will laugh about how big your heads were. Hopefully aren’t  _still_.’ She prayed.  
  
‘Oh, well you’ll be there to say I told you so, at least.’ This was, and Lily picked up on it straight away, Sirius’s way of saying he accepted her. She smiled.  
  
‘You bloody bet I will. I’ll rub it in your face with the force of a horntail. And, I’ll let you in on a secret if you can keep it?’ Lily asked looking towards Sirius who was waving his feet from side to side where his heels were rested on the floor. He turned to her and nodded once.  
  
‘I’ve actually liked James for a long time. Since the train the year we started.’ Lily felt her cheeks redden slightly as she admitted it, looking away. Sirius didn’t reply and when she looked over at him he was smiling at the floor. ‘Don’t laugh at me, Black!’ She shoved him.  
  
Sirius let his laughter free then composed himself, ‘I’m not laughing  _at_  you. You’re just a little softer than I expected, Evans. You seem so tough, but you’re a girl deep… deep down.’  
  
‘Shut up!’ She punched him as hard as she could manage in the arm and Sirius grabbed the site in mock pain.  
  
‘Don’t worry. If James is my brother that makes you my new honorary sister. You’re supposed to laugh at your sister’s expense.’ Sirius justified edging away from her so not to cop another blow.  
  
Lily smiled, ‘oh, well that’s good. I need a sibling I can talk to seeing as my sister hasn’t even bothered to inform me she’s set the date for her wedding.’ Lily had received a letter from her parents informing her that Petunia and Vernon had set a date for the following summer, now that they had been engaged since the summer holidays just gone. Of course. Because a yearlong engagement was just the perfect amount of time to leave. And her sister was always so very by the book. She was hoping that Petunia would have written to her personally, but it seemed her sister still vastly distanced herself from her ‘riff raff’. Lily hadn’t realised she let go a sigh.  
  
‘Don’t worry, I think I’ve had about four sentences from Regulus since we started school together.’ Sirius spoke and Lily looked over to him. She realised in that moment that she may have had more in common with the troublesome teenager than she realised.  
  
‘Well then, I’ll just have to come to you with all my girly topics and harass you when James is busy.’ Lily grinned. She almost expected him to have his usual indifferent persona as a reply, but he glanced back at her with a quaint smile that warmed her heart. He could be very sweet, this misunderstood boy. As he looked back down to his jittering feet she reached out and pulled him into a hug.  
  
‘Sorry. Sorry for stealing his time away from you.’ She spoke as Sirius tensed quite a bit from her contact. Funnily enough she didn’t expect as much from him. Sirius always seemed so relaxed with James and the other two that she expected he was the type to be comfortable around everyone. But as he only slightly relaxed with her, and gently returned the hug, she felt there was definitely something hiding under the surface with him. He was much more reserved than he let on.   
  
For a boy that most of the female population of the school had a crush on, he wasn’t a flirt. For a boy that seemed to get in trouble at every turn, he wasn’t rough around the edges. For a boy that acted like he didn’t care, he clearly did. He was a very strange case, but as he relaxed only slightly more, and gave her back a slight rub she felt special, just for a moment, to have a small glimpse of the boy, the real one, that had truly captured her boyfriend’s heart. She knew very well that James cared for her very deeply. But she was also well aware that he held a whole separate level of devotion for Sirius, and she was perfectly okay with that.  
  
‘So-' Lily quickly let go of Sirius and turned around to see James smiling at the two of them, ‘-oh don’t mind me. By all means, carry on.’ He had Peter trailing behind him and an invisible package tucked under his arm.  
  
‘Evans was just informing me of all the romantic things you do for her, Prongs. I wasn’t aware you were such a romeo?’   
  
‘Sirius Black!’ Lily whipped around and smacked him as he laughed and grabbed his arm yet again.  
  
‘Don’t even get me started on you Love-Pup. What are you reading over there? Is that  _sixth_  year Transfiguration notes  _again_?’ James had a massive smile on his goofy face as Lily turned back to meet his gaze.   
  
‘Shut up, James.’ Sirius warned standing up from the bed and Lily was at a loss.  
  
‘What’s this about?’ She couldn’t help the bemused smile that crept onto her face as she stared up at the three of them.  
  
‘Well, if you’re going to be hanging around you may as well know,’ Peter stepped into line with James.  
  
‘Padfoot has a wittle crush.’ James cooed puckering his lips and then narrowly dodging Sirius who almost bowled Lily over making a dive for him.  
  
‘Shut your mouth you dirty stag! I don’t want this rubbish getting around the school.’ Sirius huffed from the ground.  
  
‘Who said I’d let anything slip? I’m probably better at keeping a secret than any of you.’ Lily stared at Sirius, ‘but I have to admit, this doesn’t sound like reality. Sirius Black doesn’t have crushes.’   
  
‘Exactly.’ Sirius agreed with her, ‘they’re just-'  
  
‘He most certainly does. Have you ever known him to help anyone with their homework?’ Peter asked holding a hand out for Sirius.  
  
‘I’m not sticking around to be degraded by you two.’ Sirius hit Peter’s hand away and helped himself up easily. ‘Evans knows a load of dragon dug when she hears it. She’s intelligent.’ He walked over to her and pulled her head towards his own and placed a light kiss just above her hairline and with that he left the room while Peter and James laughed at his expense.   
  
‘I was just getting him to like me and you come in and ruin it!’ Lily stood up and smacked her palms onto James' toned chest. He bent over slightly for a moment to recover but then wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed every inch of her face he could reach over and over again until she was beside herself with laughter.  
  
‘You two are disgusting.’ Peter muttered making his way over to his own bed and trying to ignore them.  
  
‘And you are the sweetest girlfriend for that. Thank you.’ James smiled down at her as he relented on the kissing and they both calmed down a little.   
  
‘Does he really like someone? Marlene, Mary and I have always thought maybe he was, I don’t even know- devoid of human emotions mostly?’ Lily looked up at James from where he held her in his arms as she asked this. She was more than a little curious now.  
  
‘Oh no. He plays it cool, but he’s just as normal as the rest of us.’ James placed one final kiss just below her left eye and pulled her back up.  
  
‘Then, who is it?’ She asked when the answer didn’t come, wrapping her arms around James’s waist absentmindedly and reaching up to push her lips into his.  
  
‘Honestly, you don’t need to be told. Just watch him for a day and you’ll figure it out. The only person stupid enough not to get it, is her.’ Peter answered as he pulled out a sandwich from his bag, unwrapping it and taking a bite much too large to be normal. Lily felt James kiss her on the cheek as he chuckled at Peter’s remark. Lily was slightly frustrated that they wouldn’t just tell her, but that also made it all the more fun. And while there was a war raging on outside the walls of their school, and a workload as high as they had inside the walls of their school, fun was always welcomed.  


	44. Social experiments

On this grand, winter’s morning Aaliyah had done the unthinkable. A completely unacceptable act, she was going to be kicking herself over this for days. How could she be so irrevocably irresponsible as to  _sleep in_? She was becoming a tardy mess of a student. Staying up all night reading fictitious crud just because she had found more similar novels to the one so graciously lost among her own books that day. What was happening to her? Maybe they would revoke her prefect badge?  _Head Girl would be lost!_  
  
As she burst into the Great Hall she jogged down towards her spot at the end of the table, trying to pull her book bag higher on her shoulder as it slid off. Her curls were flying out all around her and getting in her mouth. She tried to spit them out and then smacked into something solid and flew backwards flat onto her backside in the process.  
  
‘Oh for Pete’s  _sake_!’ She groaned on the ground looking around at the mess she’d caused. Suddenly there was laughter coming from all around her.  
  
‘Not Pete actually.’ More snickering.  
  
‘Hey, shut your mouths and get back to your toast.’ She knew that voice all too well. She didn’t know what it was, but when she was making a fool out of herself, it always seemed to be Sirius Black that was there for front row seats. She swept her hair out of her face slowly and looked up to see Sirius offering her a hand.  
  
‘It’s like you’re a big fat bullseye or something and I’m just magnetically drawn to running into you.’ Ali sighed taking it as he aided her to her feet.  
  
‘I don't think the magnatism is figurative, actually.’ Ali heard James whisper behind her and suddenly she heard Peter snickering. She had to frown at this, what could James have even meant by that comment?  
  
‘Black did you just  _stand up_  when you saw-'  
  
‘Shhh!’  
  
‘Don’t  _shoosh_  me James.’  
  
‘Told you it wouldn’t be hard to spot.’  
  
‘Oh my god you’re  _joking_? He can’t honestly?’  
  
‘Can you three  _put a sock in it?_ ’ Sirius raised his voice looking back at Lily, James and Peter. Ali looked sideways at Sirius wondering if it was worth it trying to decipher teenage weirdness or to just let it slide? With the current time she was making she would have to let it slide if she wanted any kind of brain food for the morning. With the amount of sleep she had, she would need it.  
  
‘Whatever, sorry Black.’ She nodded her head, waved her wand as her books all jumped back into her bag and raced off to her usual spot by the teachers. She barely managed to sit down and grab some toast before the first bell rang signifying classes would commence shortly. Ali swore under her breath but found her eyes travelling up. When she looked down the table she watched as Lily pointed and laughed at Sirius. Sirius didn’t look at all impressed. Suddenly he looked away and down the table and their eyes met for the briefest of seconds before Ali looked away.  
  
The rest of the day went by without too much of a hitch. She managed to make it to class just barely after the second bell and McGonagall didn’t chastise her. She even noted that she was improving with her spell work which made Ali happy. She really had Sirius to thank for that. By last period, being a Friday, she was ready for a little rest over the weekend. She sat in her usual spot at the front of the class in Potions and worked diligently. Her left side was still occupied by none other than Regulus Black. For a month now he had been sitting by her in all their shared classes and still they’d not spoken more than a few misplaced words.  
  
As she had tried to fit in all her study material last night as well as finishing another fiction novel by the same writer as her new favourite series, she had only managed to get in about an hours sleep. In her delirium this afternoon, she decided to test this new found seating arrangement.  
  
She swallowed, ‘uh- how-' she had to clear her throat, ‘-h-how are you today… Black?’ she really needed to work on her people skills. She watched Regulus finish stirring his potion quietly beside her. Then he gracefully extracted the stirrer, placed it down and turned to give her his full attention.  
  
‘Well, thank you.’ He smiled at her. There was something about the way he smiled and spoke that felt very odd to her. ‘And you?’  
  
‘I- I am also… well.’ They both stood in silence for a moment as their potions bubbled away happily.   
  
‘Don’t feel the need to force conversation, Adams.’ Regulus began in a courteous tone, ‘I saw that you seemed to be having some kind of trouble with the students and my appearance beside you seemed like a good way of lulling it. It was beneficial on my behalf also as I needed a bit of distance from my friends for the time being.’ His words, as always, seemed staged they were so well spoken. After he finished he picked up his tools and went about things with his potion again.  
  
‘Oh, well,’ Ali thought on this for a brief time, ‘thank you, I suppose?’  
  
‘Don’t mention it, as I said, it was beneficial to both parties.’ With that said, Regulus turned back to his potion and continued on with his course work. Ali didn’t feel the need to press the matter, he did say it was to his own benefit, also. By the end of potions, she nodded a goodbye to Regulus and started her way up to the library. She had to stifle a yawn as she reached the third floor and her eyes began to water.  
  
‘Ali!’ She heard her name being called but it took her a few moments to fully register it and when she turned around she was met with Lily Evans jogging over to her, ‘Remus said you might be here.’  
  
‘Hey, Lily. Is there something prefect related? I’m not due for rounds tonight am I?’ In her head she begged she was correct and that her rounds were still tomorrow night. She didn’t think she could handle walking the corridors after curfew tonight. She might have crawled into a suit of armour and fallen asleep inside.   
  
‘No, you’re tomorrow still. I just, well, James has told me I’m not to tell you. But, honestly, I don’t see the fun in that. Girls stick together.’ Lily winked at her and dragged her away from a few Hufflepuff fifth years entering the library and back out to the grand staircase.  
  
‘What is it? Is something wrong?’ Ali felt herself waking up a little and bracing herself.  
  
‘No, I just wondered. Have you noticed Sirius Black being, um, strange lately?’  
  
This was a very odd topic of discussion to be pulling her away from her studies for, ‘uh, no more so than usual. I mean, I know he was a little sulky over Potter and you spending a lot of time together, but that seems to have cleared up.’  
  
‘He told you about that?’ Lily’s face practically lit up as she dragged Ali further and further up the stairs, dodging students and ducking tapestries.   
  
‘Not in so many words. I do believe I picked up on that on my own.’ She smiled. She was quite proud of herself for that. It wasn’t every day she picked up on social queues or unspoken contexts.   
  
‘Well have you noticed that he fancies you?’ Lily stopped down the hall of the portrait hole and looked around to make sure they were alone.   
  
‘I beg your pardon?’ Ali recoiled her hand from Lily as if she had spat out a racial slur. This just made Lily giggle.  
  
‘He fancies you, Ali. Sirius Black thinks your something special.’ She was staring at Ali as if she expected her to come to the same deranged conclusion she had. But Ali wasn’t thick.  
  
‘I think you’ve gone a little soft from all your romance with Potter, Lily.’ Ali was so taken aback she didn’t realise the face she was pulling. Lily began to laugh loudly at her but sobered quite fast.  
  
‘I can’t believe I didn’t pick up on it sooner to be honest, I think it’s because you’re not in our year, but now that I see it it’s quite blindingly obvious.’  
  
‘I don’t see how?’ Ali just stared at Lily as if she’d quite literally lost the plot.  
  
‘He’s always getting into trouble around you.’  
  
‘He gets into trouble around everyone.’  
  
‘He goes out of his way to talk to you.’  
  
‘He goes out of his way to  _annoy_  me.’  
  
‘He flirts with you.’  
  
‘I wouldn’t call anything he does flirting.’  
  
‘If you could just see him with other girls, you’d understand. He doesn’t whip out little sly innuendos with anyone else. He barely  _speaks_  to anyone if he’s not laughing at their expense or trying to brush them off.’ Lily explained. She’d been going over it all day through classes and coming to so many conclusions.  
  
‘I- what?’  
  
‘He’s helping you with your homework, Adams. Sirius  _Black_  is helping someone with  _homework_. Sirius Black doesn’t even  _do_  homework. Do you understand the gravity of that? He stood up when he saw you coming this morning, that’s why you ran into him. This is all hilarious to me because I’ve watched nearly all the Gryffindor girls running around besides themselves about Sirius Black since first year. I've heard fantasy after ridiculous fantasy from my dorm mates about him suddenly turning hot for them and doing all these sweet things. But by god that is just not Sirius Black. You’d be lucky to have a conversation with the guy let alone have him lusting after you.’  
  
‘Where is this going, Lily?’ Ali wasn’t swayed. Lily might have made up her mind about this, but she just wasn’t convinced.   
  
‘Well?’ Lily looked at her expectantly once again. When Ali raised a brow at her in reply she continued, ‘do you like him?’  
  
It was a simple enough question. It had a simple enough answer.  _No_. Definitely not. Preposterous. Simply ridiculous. Aaliyah Adams did not, in any way shape or form,  _fancy_  Sirius Black. She was in no way attracted to him. Not his perfectly shaped eyebrows, or his ridicuous stormy grey eyes. Nothing about his stupid flicky, midnight black hair made her happy. His height in comparison to her own didn’t sometimes make her breath catch in her throat. The fact that she’d nearly seen every inch of his body didn’t make her blush. She didn’t find her mind drifting off to the scattered study sessions they’d had together recently. Certainly not the one in which they were almost caught holding hands. She  _never_ pictured his face whilst reading her sappy romance novels of late. She certainly did  _not_  let her eyes trail down the Gryffindor table at breakfast and lunch to look at him.   
  
‘Oh  _shit_.’ She quickly covered her mouth with her hand as Lily squealed.  
  
‘You  _do_!’ As Lily said the words out loud Ali had to think. Did she? She’d never liked anyone before. She thought she shared feelings for Remus a time ago, but that just turned out to be the love of friendship. She always felt something vastly different for Sirius Black. The way she felt for Remus was the same for Lily. But there was something different about the projection of her emotion for Sirius Black. It was  _hatred_. It had to be. This crazy heat she felt whenever she thought of his face. That was pure, hatred.  
  
‘I don’t- I don’t know. What… what does it feel like? Liking someone? Does it feel like burning hatred?’ Ali fixed her petrified gaze on Lily.  
  
‘Uh,’ Lily pulled up short, ‘well, I guess. Love and hate are two extremes of the same emotion I suppose. I know I want to punch James in the face just as much as I want to kiss him. Oh! That’s it! Kiss him!’ Lily wiggled a little and grabbed Ali by the shoulders. Ali was so jostled by the conversation, the forced contact was lost to her usual awkwardness.   
  
‘What? Just walk up and  _kiss him_? And then I’ll know if I like him?’ Ali stared at Lily as if she’d gone mad. Lily just nodded enthusiastically. Since her best friend wasn’t surfacing from her bed for anything besides classes lately and Mary seemed to be MIA more often than not for reasons she refused to share with Lily, this was the best girly interaction she’d had all week. Ali blinked back at her.  
  
‘I suppose it makes sense. When Cresswell kissed me all I could think about was whether or not I’d signed off on my detention for Mulciber and Crouch.’  
  
‘Well when you kiss someone you like you certainly won’t be thinking of other boys, believe me.’ Lily had a knowing glint in her eye. Ali thought on it for a moment. Her experiment with Cresswell was an utter failure. She really was rubbish with understanding this sort of thing. But if the last few weeks had taught her anything, it was that she wasn’t lacking in the feminie department. She did want to experience what Lily seemed to be, and if Lily was so hell bent on Sirius liking her, it might have been worth a try.   
  
‘I could give it a go?’ She voiced, ‘as an experiment?’ Once she decided on it, the next words she shared with Lily were sort of a blur as they entered the common room and before she knew it she was walking over to where the boys were all sat together.   
  
Suddenly she became very aware of her surroundings as Remus settled into her line of vision.  
  
‘Hey.’ He smiled at her and she smiled back. He hadn’t been much of himself over the past week, she’d spent a few days with him in the library. But he wasn’t her focus at the moment. She turned rigidly to face Sirius and found him to be watching her quite quizzically.  
  
‘C-could I borrow you for a moment, Black?’ She asked as Lily crossed a distance to sit down with James. Sirius’s eyes darted over to Lily, then back to her.  
  
‘Yeah, of course.’ He stood up and as he did Ali turned her back to him and led him out of the common room. After she made her way through the portrait hole, she walked down the corridor and passed the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy before she stopped to check if Sirius was still following.   
  
She was met with his tall stature merely centimetres from her own. She looked around to make sure the corridor was deserted.   
  
‘Is there something wrong, Adams?’ He looked down at her and Ali suddenly felt her heart thumping in her chest.  
  
‘Nothing’s wrong.’ She tried to steady her breathing. She felt all hot and flustered and her brain wasn’t working like it usually did.  
  
‘Are you sure? Because you seem a little bothered. Is it Cresswell again?’ Sirius asked moving closer to her and closing the tiny gap between them.  
  
‘Would you mind-' she lost her nerve for a moment, he was so close, ‘would you mind if I conducted an experiment on you?’ Her eyes left his Adams apple and trailed up to his lips.  
  
‘An experiment? Like, for transfiguration?’ She looked up from his lips to his eyes and he was confused. Lily’s words kept bouncing around in her head.  _He fancies you_ , _Sirius Black thinks you’re something special._  Was it true? Did he really not speak to other girls like he did her? Did he go out of his way to help her with her homework? Her eyes fixated on his lips now and her heart kept pounding. This was extraordinary to her, she’d never felt like this before.  
  
‘No,’ she swallowed, ‘it’s more of a social experiment, for my own analysis.’ Her eyes left his lips and rested on his light coloured irises as he stared down at her. She barely registered him agreeing before she reached up and gripped the back of his neck with her hand. Her heart felt like it was going to thump right out of her chest as she pushed up on her tip toes to reach her lips to his own. She was  _petrified_  of his reaction. This could have gone so  _horribly_  wrong if Lily wasn’t right with her assumptions.  
  
When her lips pushed against Sirius’s, it felt like hours were falling by as she waited for his reaction. He held perfectly still for what felt like too long. This was her kiss with Dirk Cresswell all over again but this time, she was Dirk. This was a failure. This was  _terrible_. Just as she started to lower herself down to break away from the kiss, suddenly she felt some kind of force pushing back. Sirius’s arms came to life and wrapped up around her lower back and pulled her in closer to him.   
  
His lips pulled away from her only to come crashing back down as he kissed her again, and again. She felt like she couldn’t breathe as his hands travelled up her spine to rest under her shoulder blades. As his lips pulled away from hers again she opened her eyes to look up at him. Their eyes connected briefly before his mouth descended on her neck, breathing hot breaths and lightly nipping on parts of her skin. She felt her breathing quicken as he spun her around and pushed her up against the corridor wall.   
  
Suddenly his lips returned to hers and began sucking gently at her lower one, before kissing her fully again. As their mouths connected she felt her heart pounding in her ear and suddenly she wanted nothing else but to disappear into the bliss that was this feeling. She felt his tongue slide against her lips and she parted them to allow it to enter her mouth. She had never felt anything like it in her life. Her stomach was floating. Her arms were curling around his neck and her hands delving into his soft hair. How did he get his hair so  _soft_?  
  
She felt his chest press against her and she let something escape from her mouth. Did she just  _moan_? Did that actually happen? His body felt so hard against her own. Sirius’s right hand started to wander down to her hip and rested there as their lips still locked, and his tongue played with her own in the most tantalizing way she was aware was possible. She felt her nails digging into his shoulder suddenly and his lips left hers once again to return to her jawline.  
  
Suddenly she snapped back to reality when Sirius’s hand settled gently on her lower back and she yelped.  
  
‘Whoa, you okay?’ Sirius asked drawing away from her neck and looking down at her pressed against the wall.  
  
Ali’s heart was going a million miles an hour as she stared back at him. If this was an experiment, this certainly had to be hard proof that this kiss in no way resembled her last. Which meant…  
  
‘ _Fuck_.’ Ali stared back at Sirius and swore.  
  
‘What?’ Sirius asked.  
  
Ali suddenly pushed him back and swore again. And again.   
  
‘Oh  _no_.’ She knew what this meant. She had feelings. She had feelings for  _Sirius Black_  of all people.  
  
‘Oh no?’ Sirius asked looking very confused.  
  
‘Oh  **no _._** ’ Ali shook her head and stepped away from him. She looked back at him and he looked  _adorable_. His brows were furrowed in confusion and his hair was messed from where her hands had just been in it. His lips were red and it was an amazing contrast to his creamy skin and his light eyes. Aaliyah Adams  _fancied_  Sirius Black.  
  
‘Oh  ** _no_.** ’ She covered her mouth as her heart rate stabilized. She turned, and without another word, walked straight back towards the common room. She didn’t know what to do. She’d just full on, no doubt about it, snogged Sirius Black. And the worst part was, she’d never felt anything more exhilarating in her life. The way his lips felt against her own. The way they felt against her neck. His hands on her body. Her hands on  _his_  body. Every part of what had just transpired was, for lack of a better word,  _magical_. You couldn’t get that kind of a rush from any of the potions in all of the magical world.  
  
She crossed the common room with her hand still over her mouth and ran for the girls stairs. She heard someone say her name but all she wanted to do was get to her bed and shut the curtains and think on this. Once she was in her dorm she was thrilled to see it empty. She fell into her bed and suddenly her stomach was in knots. Or it wasn’t knots, it was like something was squirming around in there as she thought about what just happened.  
  
‘What happened!?’ Lily came flying in the door and over to her bed. Ali flopped over, belly up and slapped a hand over her mouth again. ‘Don’t keep me in suspense woman!’  
  
‘Oh  _no_.’ Ali let loose and looked over at Lily.   
  
‘What? Were you thinking about Mulciber and Crouch the whole time?’ Lily asked trying to figure out what was going on.  
  
‘Who?’ Ali kept touching her lips. She realised Lily was laughing at her.  
  
‘That good then?’  
  
‘I fancy Sirius Black.’ Ali said aloud.  
  
‘You and the entire female population of England.’ Lily watched her, fascinated, ‘luckily though, he seems to fancy you right back.’  
  
‘Do you really think so?’ Ali snapped out of her trance finally and sat up to look at Lily.  
  
‘Well, judging by the hickey’s coming up on your neck. Yes, I really do.’ Lily started to giggle as Ali touched a hand to her neck wondering what on earth a hickey was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You're welcome.


	45. Sirius's Kiss

Sirius stood by the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy for a full five minutes before he could move from his shock-induced state. What on earth had just happened? Was he dreaming? Was he getting too heavily into Slughorn’s secret potions stalls with the boys again? He looked around to see if anyone had seen them. No one was present, the corridor still stood deserted. He turned to face the crazy wizard dodging trolls in pointe shoes.

‘Did you see that?’ he asked as Barnabas dodged another wart-covered, chunky green leg.

‘Parts of it. It’s hard to-' he dodged another, ‘-concentrate with all this. What was I thinking!?’

That was all the confirmation he needed though as he left the tapestry and headed for the portrait hole. When he climbed through everyone was going about their business like normal. There were first years practising levitating charms in the corner. There were girls giggling and pointing at him from another. There were a group of the team quidditch players roughhousing each other. Nothing was out of the ordinary. He crossed the distance to the boys and stood for a moment before the empty chair he had been sitting in some twenty minutes prior, much less confused.

‘What happened?’ Peter asked. Sirius turned to him with a face etched with bewilderment, his mouth still slightly agape.

‘I have no idea.’ He replied falling back into the seat.

‘Well, you must have done something. She just ran back in here and straight up the stairs. Lily’s gone after her. What did she want?’ James asked sitting forward in his armchair. Sirius looked up at him, then across to Remus and back again to James.

‘She wanted to conduct an experiment.’ It was the best way he could explain it. What had she wanted? What was that? What even were girls? Did they take some sick kind of enjoyment out of being perfectly mysterious and relish in never explaining what they were thinking?

‘An experiment?’ Remus repeated, ‘what kind of experiment?’ It was a very valid question.

‘I honestly don’t know.’ Sirius replied scratching behind his ear then securing some of his hair there, ridding his face of it.

‘Girls are weird.’ Peter spoke from the ground and returned to his copy of the daily prophet.

‘Yeah.’ Sirius agreed limply. Was there something behind that kiss? Did this mean she had some kind of feelings for him? He wasn’t used to putting so much thought into a girl. He didn’t like it at all. He enjoyed being completely disinterested in them. Ignoring them was a lot easier than this. Was he just supposed to ignore what happened? Was this a test? What the bloody hell was going on?

He sat in silence for some time, wondering if he should still have been mulling it over. James and Remus were perfectly normal, discussing their plans for the holidays.

‘Merlin, do you know what this means?’ James suddenly spoke up and Sirius was more than happy to listen and emerge from his own head. All the boys turned to look at James, ‘boys we’re all staying for the holidays this year.’ James grinned.

‘What, why?’ Peter asked nibbling on the end of a sugar quill.

‘Boys,’ James reiterated as if they should have known, ‘Christmas this year falls on a full moon.’ James looked thoroughly entertained while Remus’ let out a moan in complaint. To the three other boys this was great news. A full moon run for their last Christmas at Hogwarts was a perfect farewell. The ruckus they could cause as a parting gift, it was far too good to be true. Merry Christmas Marauders.

‘Oh, Padfoot,’ James started, ‘are you going to be coming to Sluggy’s Christmas party this year? He’s requested us again.’

Sirius groaned thinking about the formalities and just general boredom he would have to endure there. He really didn’t want to go. He disliked Slughorn as a teacher. He was very picky with his students and tended to suck up to those he thought would do well later on in life. What bothered him most was that he would always ask himself and James along but tended to forget about Remus. What’s to say Remus wouldn’t do just as well, if not better than he or James? It irked Sirius to no end. Prejudice was one thing Sirius loathed above all others.

But then suddenly a thought struck him. Adams was in the Slug Club. Of course she was. Perfect, prefect Adams and her grades. Slughorn would fawn over her for sure. And she was a teacher’s pet if ever there was one. He’d certainly see her there. He could distinctly remember teasing her at the last one and having his ear assaulted after the fun he and James had had with that knucklehead Aubrey.

‘When is it?’ Sirius questioned hoping no one would zero in on his train of thought.

‘Week into holidays, on the Friday just before Christmas.’ James replied, ‘oh and, I’ll be going with Lily so, you might want to bring a date?’ He added as a side note. Sirius merely hummed an absent reply then settled further down in his armchair in thought.

*

The next two days passed without incident. Sirius didn’t want to be seen looking for Ali for fear of being ridiculed. He tried his best to not seem as though he was watching out for her. But at around seven pm on the Sunday night, when he hadn’t seen her at any meals or in the common room, he left James, Lily and Peter and went by the third floor.

When he was caught walking inside the library by none other than Remus, who had been on his way out, his friend had smirked at him knowingly and spoken but three words, “she’s not here.” He made up a very skittish and fumbled excuse that he wasn’t looking for anyone and cursed his luck when Remus passed by him laughing under his breath. He decided to leave it up to Adams to find him. The younger prefect seemed to have a habit for it even if he was known to sometimes help it along.

But when Monday rolled around and none of his questions had been answered he decided to take matters into his own hands again. As he and the others descended down to the great hall for dinner he looked sideways at Peter.

‘Hey, I left something up…stairs. Can you let them know I’ll be down later?’ He nodded towards James and Remus who were ahead of them. Lily had also been scarce these past few days and seemed to be giggling a lot in Sirius’s presence. But every time he confronted her about it, her reply was “seen Adams around lately?” so he ticked it off as her being a rotten little git. What were sisters for?

‘Sure.’ Peter agreed somewhat reluctantly as he watched Sirius with a calculating stare. Sirius hated this. He felt like everyone was watching him and waiting for him to do something stupid. He didn’t want to turn into the lame friend that ditched his friends for a girl. And he wouldn’t. He just, he really had to know what the hell was going on with that insufferable prefect.

He turned away and took the stairs three at a time all the way back up to Gryffindor tower. He took the two short cuts through the castle that only he and the other boys knew that got him back there in record time. Just as he was climbing in through the portrait hole, he saw a group of girls coming towards him and froze for a moment. They were the annoying ones Adams shared a dorm with.

‘Oh, hi Sirius.’ The one with long blonde hair smiled at him. What was her name again? Amy? Bec? Something with three letters. Or was it five? Sally? He gave her a smile back as he stepped out of the way for them.

She lingered and her three friends hovered behind her. Sirius’s smile started to relax as he watched her, denying her a reply for he knew it was the best way of dealing with these girls. Polite smiles and less words. That way they didn’t have anywhere to veer the conversation and the contact died off very quickly.

His eyes darted around the common room quickly, they seemed to be the only ones left. That must have meant Adams was in her dorm.

‘We’ll, uh, see you down at dinner then?’ The blonde asked. Sirius quickly glanced back at her.

Less words, he thought. He gave her a quick smile once again and stepped away. He walked slowly towards the boys stairs as he listened to them leaving. He heard a few words exchanged between the girls. The last of which were ‘she can’t stay in there forever.’ And ‘maybe she has dragon pox, fingers crossed.’

This made his top lip twitch but they were gone before he could even bother to ask into it. He turned and looked at the girl’s stairs and knew there was no way he was getting up there. And waiting at the bottom would be useless. If they were talking about Adams, that meant she’d certainly been up there for a while. Then a thought struck him. Would the charm to keep boys off the staircase, keep boy dogs off the staircase? Someone in the female cohort had to have a male cat? He was sure Adams herself had a male cat. It couldn’t extend to animals.

So he stripped down and transformed after he was sure he was alone, collected up his clothes in his mouth and jumped onto the staircase. Nothing happened. He took a few more stairs up. Nothing happened. He’d done it. He’d out smarted the founders. This had to be a new record of deviancy. Once he got to the top however, he had no clue which dorm would be hers. He climbed a few more flights in blind faith knowing his and the boy’s rooms were on the fourth floor so hers would have to be higher also. When he got to the third flight however, a familiar face stared back at him. A fluffy white cat sat outside the door, his tail flicking back and forth as he watched Sirius.

Sirius transformed back and Snowball stood up, watching him diligently. Sirius quickly donned his pants and school trousers, then pulled his white shirt on and began buttoning it up. When he was halfway done, suddenly the dorm door opened and Adams stood in the doorway halfway through saying her cat’s name before she pulled up short at the sight before her.

‘-ball?’ She finished her hand still secured around the door knob. Snowball took a few steps forward and wound himself around her legs, purring. Sirius fingers were frozen halfway up his shirt buttons. Neither of them were moving and the only sound that could be heard was the gentle hum of the cat’s purrs.

No one said anything for the longest time. Sirius didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t even sure what possessed him to come up here. What did he think he would gain from this? They both stared at each other in disbelief. Sirius let his eyes wander for a moment and he realised she was not in her school uniform, but instead in a pair of rather revealing pale pink satin pyjamas. Ali finally broke the silence.

‘Boys aren’t allowed in the girls dorms.’

‘That’s all you’ve got to say to me?’ Sirius eyes snapped up from her body to her face.

‘How did you even get up here?’ she quickly reached down and picked up her cat in some kind of defence mechanism, ‘and why are you undoing your shirt?’ she squeaked this part holding the white cat close to her body.

‘What happened the other day?’ Sirius gained his nerve back and realised how frustrated he was with this half-wit prefect. His buttons could wait.

‘I have the right to give you a detention you realise?’ She took a step back into her dorm. This only led to Sirius advancing.

‘You don’t just snog someone and then run away afterwards Adams, it's bad manners.’

‘You can’t just enter a girl’s room without her permission, it's bad manners.’ As she finished her sentence her back was pressed against one of the posters of the first bed in the dorm and Sirius was inches from her. They stared at each other for a moment before Snowball hissed at Sirius and flipped out a paw to claw his shirt. His little claws seemed to get stuck in the material though and they both turned their attention to the cat as he started mewing pathetically for help.

‘Do you maybe want to start explaining yourself?’ Sirius asked, freeing Snowball absentmindedly.

‘I- I don’t. Not really.’ She nodded one assertive nod as if that ended the matter.

‘Let me rephrase that, please explain yourself.’

‘I- Sorry, what was there to explain?’ She was smirking and defecting his line of vision. He reached out and placed a hand on the poster of the bed, just above her head. He moved his face closer to try and force her to look at him. She was dodging him rather well.

‘Well actually, I was wondering about your charms course work, how is it going? Is everything fitting together well? Do you feel like you have a firm grasp on it?’ He asked in an overly sarcastic manner. Ali raised her chin from her cat however and looked him in the eyes with confusion.

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘I’m joking. I’m pretty sure you know what I’m on about, Adams.’ As he spoke Ali wiggled out of his reach and around to the side of the bed where she put Snowball down and then crossed her arms over her chest, looking very awkward in the process. It made Sirius’s breath hitch in his throat however when he looked over her exposed skin again. He’d always held her skin in a very high regard and seeing so much of it was quite distracting.

‘I’m not nearly decent enough to be discussing this with you. Possibly another time… maybe.’ She didn’t sound overly truthful and it seemed she was still unable to look him in the eye.

‘Do you do that often then? Just run around snogging guys in the corridor without an explanation?’ He wasn’t sure why he said it. It was a rather rude question, one he was honestly certain wasn’t true. Adams could barely hold a conversation with students, let alone keep up casual snogging.

‘You know what? You can get out of my room right now actually!’ She suddenly seemed to snap out of her timid mood and launched straight back into the fireball she usually was. She smacked her palms into his bare chest, full force and he felt the sting instantly. But he reacted with perfect timing and reached up to grab her hands, keeping them there as she pushed him towards the door way.

‘Hold on, just- just tell me,’ he drew to a blank though. What did he want to know? It really wasn’t that bad, her snogging him out of the blue. It was great actually. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t wanted it for months now. If it had been any other girl, he knew he wouldn’t have looked into it. He would have merely shrugged his shoulders and gone about his daily business as usual. He wouldn’t still be dwelling on it days later. He probably wouldn’t have even remembered it days later.

What was it with this infuriating girl? Why was she causing him so much inner turmoil?

‘Stop.’ He spoke softly, still holding onto her wrists and they came to a stop just outside of her room. Her eyes locked onto his and she seemed ready to listen, albeit still a little hostile. As he stared down at her something suddenly dawned on him. This girl was infuriating. She kisses him, takes off without an explanation, then has the nerve to kick him out when he’s being perfectly reasonable by just asking what it was all about?

This was classic, sadistic Adams. The girl that laughed at him falling over. The girl that chased him around dishing out punishments. The girl that literally expressed feelings of the deepest loathing towards him, then turns around and exchanges saliva? Who was this girl?!

‘Apologise this instant for assaulting me.’ He demanded as it dawned on him that for the first time, she was in the wrong. Her face suddenly went blank as she stared back at him. Slowly, very slowly, as he awaited her apology, which didn’t seem to be coming, her face began to turn up into a cruel and very forced smirk. Her left eye twitched a little.

‘Sirius Black.’ She spoke his name with the upmost difficulty.

‘Yes?’ He smirked, awaiting the words “I am sorry” to leave her lips. Her very tender, soft, quite simply irresistible lips as he remembered them.

Suddenly her expression snapped into one of death as she focused on him. ‘Remove your vain, arrogant, petulant face from my dormitory this. instant.’ Suddenly he got the feeling she was no longer playing around.

‘Why are you in such a foul mood? If you didn’t want anyone seeing you in your unmentionable’s you should have put a dressing gown on before you opened the door.’

He was positive steam was about to burst forth from her ears and flared nostrils, ‘I wasn’t aware I had to guard myself from predators in my own dormitory and someone still has my dressing gown!’ Her voice was ear piercing and she smacked him so hard in the chest he almost toppled over backwards. As it was he secured one foot on the first step of the staircase and steadied himself. It didn’t result for much more than gaining one final look at her though, as the minute his foot settled on that top most stair, the entire case transitioned into a glistening stone slide and his legs disappeared under him. He slid belly down, feet first all the way back down to the common room.

All he heard from the staircase when he reached the bottom with an ‘oomph’ was Adams laughing maliciously in the distance.

‘Serves you right, voyeur.’ He heard her call out before her door shut and he was left in silence, chuckling slightly to himself. For some reason, he found the sadistic laughter rather humorous. He was going to have to up the ante if he wanted to draw her out and really get some answers. And Sirius Black was nothing, if not an ideas man.


	46. The queen of solitude

Ali was certainly hiding from Sirius Black. Thankfully the older boy had a little more in the way of tact however, and had not gone around the school informing people of what had happened between them. So she wasn’t dodging accusations from fellow students or receiving the back end of every Sirius Black fan girl’s wrath. She knew there would have been more than a few toes trodden on over that kiss, and at least thirty of those toes belonged within the confines of her own bedroom here at Hogwarts.   
  
She wasn’t sure what she was feeling, or how to deal with those feelings, and so she was taking her time to figure it out. It shocked her when Sirius had gone out of his way to find her and bypass the  _founder’s_  restrictions of boys in the girl’s dormitories. She had successfully negated him since, which really wasn’t hard when they shared no classes together. It was now Saturday morning the following week. They only had one more week of classes before the Christmas holidays began and she would be going home to see her family in their much closer, new home.  
  
‘Morning,’ Emily smiled at her as she came back from the prefects bathroom. She seemed to be the only one in the dorm. Emily was always quite pleasant when it was just the two of them.  
  
‘Hey. Where’s the trio?’ Ali asked, stashing away her toiletries and moving to look at herself in her mirror. She glanced over her reflection and her wet curls. Today she was in casual dress as there were no detentions on her agenda. She registered Emily’s face in the background looking a little confused at her question and had to smile.  
  
‘You know, I can’t remember.’ Emily replied, shrugging. She grabbed the brush on her side table and dragged it through her straight, dark locks. She had a bright smile on her face as she touched her fringe absently and sighed.  
  
‘Are you okay?’ Ali asked, genuinely concerned for the girl. She was a space cadet, certainly, but she seemed unnaturally out of it this morning.  
  
‘Oh, fine. Just thinking about someone.’ She blinked her bright blue eyes a few times, still dragging her brush through her long, thick hair. ‘Oh, you haven’t seen my book have you? I lost it ages ago, but I can’t seem to remember  _where_.’ Emily shook her head as her placid smile was replaced with a look of concern.  
  
‘What book was it?’ Ali asked laying back on her bed and wondering what she could fill her day with today.  
  
‘I can’t remember the title. But it was a little paperback novel about a witch and a muggle boy.’  
  
‘That’s  _your_  book!?’ Ali flung up, ‘how did it end up with my books in the library that night?’  
  
Emily slapped her forehead, ‘oh  _that’s_ where I left it! I always get so lost in the library. No wonder.’  
  
 _How on earth do you get_ lost _in the library? They’re just adjacent rows of bookshelves?_ Ali shook her head ridding herself of her own thoughts and sat up to access her side table. She pulled the draw open and fished out the now quite battered book.   
  
‘Sorry, I got caught up reading it. A few times actually,’ she admitted knowing it was unavoidable with the state it was now in.  
  
‘Oh thank you! I wouldn’t have been able to bear admitting I lost it.’ Emily took the book back graciously and hugged it to her chest as she sat down on her bed beside Ali’s. ‘I was asked to read it because it was supposed to show me that any love is worth fighting for. But I’m terrible at focusing on just one thing. I always get so distracted.’ Emily smiled touching her fringe again, then placed the book down under her pillow.  
  
‘I better get going. Something tells me the girls are waiting for me somewhere. If I want to find them before lunch, I should probably start now.’ She provided Ali with a bright, warming smile as she left her bed and wandered off to the door, closing it behind her.   
  
Ali just shook her head in her daydreamer dorm mate’s absence. At least the mystery surrounding her book was solved. Somewhat. Who on earth would have been trying to convince Emily that  _any_  love was worth fighting for? She prayed it wasn’t her cousin. Nay did seem to like her. That would have just been awkward.   
  
Thinking about love suddenly brought a face to her mind and she bit her lip when she registered Sirius’s eyes. What was wrong with her? She hated this boy. He was insufferable. It was a testament to the saying you do not choose who you fall for. She sighed and wondered if Remus would be in the library today. He seemed to be joining her a lot since he and Marlene had split. They never spoke much, but she always enjoyed his company. Something about Remus calmed her. A nice, calm Saturday was definitely on the cards after the week she’d had hiding out in her dorm and dodging anyone taller than her in the corridors.  
  
She left Gryffindor tower and slowly made her way down to the third floor. When she reached the landing of the fourth however, she saw a first year dropping all the books from his bag as there was now a large rip in the bottom. It wasn’t much out of the ordinary, but when a second student ran from the corridor to the staircase, trying to hold up her dress as the straps had broken, she got suspicious.   
  
She narrowed her eyes and made her way down the fourth floor corridor warily. She heard a girl squeak and come running towards her with a large rip up her skirt and then she heard loud, rambunctious laughter coming down the hall. This could only have meant one thing. She rolled her eyes and kept walking. She registered Remus first, standing a little out of the way, biting his lip to stop himself laughing although he was looking at the floor and not at the commotion being made in front of him.   
  
Ali walked straight up to him and shook her head silently. He merely shrugged his shoulders when he saw her and continued to bite his lip. Avoiding him or not, she could not ignore such a foul act of rebellion. Aaliyah set her eyes on Sirius Black’s back from where he was crouched on the ground in the perfect position for tormenting unknowing students with Peter beside him. The two were snickering as they set their sights on a new target for their diffindo charm practice.   
  
She advanced with a twitching eye as Sirius flicked his wand with the perfected wrist movement and sliced another student’s bag strap, causing her to drop everything in her arms as she made a grab for her bag. Peter and Sirius cracked into a fit of laughter as Ali stopped behind them. She raised her hands to either sides of their heads and smacked the two of their skulls into each other.  
  
‘You absolute  _prat_ _s,_ ’ She grabbed them both by their ears after they yelped in pain from the head blows, and then began emitting similar yelps of pain from the pinch of her thumb and forefinger on their tender cartilage.   
  
‘Adams! Adams it wasn’t me!’ Peter surrendered as the two trouble makers were forced to their feet.  
  
‘Don’t even try me, Pettigrew. I know your innocence call by now.’ She set the two of them free and they turned to meet her stance. Peter was rubbing his ear and head looking very sorry for himself. She tried her best not to look at Sirius. She really did. But as soon as her eyes wandered over to him, she swore inwardly. He looked perfect, of course. He stood tall before her, looking down at her with a devious smirk.   
  
‘Good  _morning,_  Adams. Fancy seeing you here.’ He spoke, dragging his fingers through his hair and causing it to fall in the most perfect way around his face. Ali felt her heart rate pick up in both nervousness and agitation.   
  
‘Oh  _such_  a surprise. Me turning up where terrorized students are running from.’ She rolled her eyes and felt herself almost grinding her teeth.  
  
‘Going to give me a detention, Adams? I mean, you heard Wormtail. He wasn’t at fault. It was all me.’ The way he smiled after giving himself up made her want to punch him. She screwed up her features in excruciating anger and drew in a deep breath. Was this it? Was this what Lily was talking about? She did say she wanted to punch James as much as she wanted to snog him. Did Ali want to snog Sirius?  
  
‘You wish, Black. Ten points from Gryffindor. Now, go annoy someone else for the day, please.’ She refused to open her eyes to look at him. The blood was pumping around her body so loudly from her elevated emotions she could hear her heart beat in her ears.  
  
‘Nah, I like annoying you.’ Sirius replied.  
  
‘Oh really? I couldn’t tell.’ She rolled her eyes and turned to give Remus a lecture about letting these idiots do as they pleased before asking him to accompany her to the library, where she would undoubtedly have lectured him further. But as she turned to meet the much taller, jumper clad, beanie donned boy, he was gone. When she whipped back to Sirius she realised Peter, too, had snuck off without her noticing.  
  
‘Where- where did they go?’ She suddenly felt very vulnerable as Sirius came to stand beside her, looking down the hall in the same direction she was.  
  
‘Oh my. I’m not sure. Those rascals. Leaving me to get in trouble on my own, again.’ He snapped his fingers in mock defeat. He then turned his head to look at Ali, who was already looking up at him. She felt a blush rise to her cheeks but for some reason she refused to look away. It was some kind of stand of wills. ‘Sure you don’t want to give me detention? I’ve been quite bad this week. You’ve missed loads while you’ve been hiding away.’  
  
‘You- what have you done?’ She narrowed her eyes in a menacing glare.  
  
‘Oh, many things. I sent every school owl out with messages to ministry officials reading ‘ministry never, Hogwarts forever.’ That was fun because no one could send letters all day. James and I gathered a whole bunch of live lacewing flies and set them free in the prefect’s bathroom yesterday. Evans caught us though. Wormtail and I successfully managed to enchant eight Slytherin’s quill’s to randomly spray ink in their faces. That one was my favourite, because they still haven’t figured out the counter-jinx. It’s still happening. Bartemius is one  _angry_  boy this week. Not to mention-’  
  
‘Oh my gosh, stop.’ Ali’s fists were in very tight little balls by her sides. She was practically shaking. There was no way she could have feelings for such a boy. Such a  _man_. He was  _eighteen_  and still acting like a five year old.   
  
‘Would you like to punish me accordingly, Adams?’ Sirius’s face suddenly turned very sly indeed, ‘Or would you rather… experiment?’ Oh, he was having  _fun_. Ali quickly slapped her hands over her mouth as visions of their kiss came back to her. Her heart started beating faster. Suddenly a shiver erupted from the bottom of her spine and she turned away from him.  
  
‘Leave me alone.’ She began walking back out to the grand staircase.  
  
‘Hey, come back here!’ Sirius called out before she heard his shoes making hasty steps in her direction. ‘Don’t go. I’m sorry, I’ll stop tormenting you. Just stay.’ He was laughing as she turned back to him.   
  
‘You know, at least Cresswell made himself scarce after we kissed. Even if he was a stupid git about it.’ She stared at the chuckling boy before her, looking less than impressed. Sirius suddenly snapped out of his laughter and looked down at her, very seriously.  
  
‘Wait. You and Cresswell? You  _actually_  kissed him?’ Sirius was frowning now.  
  
Ali’s face suddenly felt like it was on fire. Had she just told a boy she’d recently kissed about another boy she’d recently kissed? Who was this harlot woman and what had she done with the up and coming Head Girl of the class of ‘79?  
  
‘I- well- it wasn’t quite the same as-' did she dare say it out loud? Did she dare admit what had happened between them?  
  
‘I didn’t think any of that was true. I roughed him up because of those accusations, Adams!’ Sirius seemed to contemplate something. But then came to an inward conclusion and merely shrugged it off.   
  
‘What did you  _do_ to him?’ Ali asked mildly curious and much less ready to lecture him about it than usual. Cresswell  _had_  caused her a fair amount of grief after all. He’d gone around telling people they were dating the little snot nose.  
  
Sirius winked at her, ‘it’s a secret.’  
  
Ali felt a bemused smile dance onto her face, ‘why would you rough him up anyway? What, were you jealous, Black?’ She humoured herself and gave off a quaint laugh at her joke. When she looked back to Sirius though, he didn’t seem to find it nearly as funny. ‘Were you?’ Ali asked again, much more seriously.  
  
‘Of course I was.’ Sirius blinked. For a moment Ali felt like the floor had suddenly dropped five feet and her stomach was up in her throat. What had Sirius Black just said? He was  _jealous_? He was jealous over  _her_? She couldn’t comprehend it. She could merely blink as at least a minute passed them by in silence.   
  
‘I’ve wanted to kiss you for… months.’ As Sirius spoke, he stepped closer to the prefect and closed the small distance between them. This time, Ali did not step away. She just looked up into his eyes as he continued. ‘But I didn’t let onto it, because I thought you despised me. I mean, more often than not you would be cursing my existence and hollering at me like a howler. And then, out of the blue on some random day, you pull me out of the common room and kiss me. I don’t understand at all, but I’m not objecting to it. For some reason, you don’t hate me as much anymore. And- And if it’s okay with you, I’d like to try my luck at erasing that hate completely.’   
  
He reached a hand up and brushed a few of the drying curls behind her ear as he stared down at her.  
  
‘I- I don’t think that’s possible. I think I’ll always hate you.’ Ali suddenly felt all goofy and limp. She couldn’t take her eyes off the boy before her.  
  
‘Then why aren’t you walking away?’ Sirius asked as his hand, which had been frozen where he had tucked her hair away, moved down to brush over her neck.  
  
‘I am.’ She lied as she began breathing through her mouth in an attempt to slow down her very quickly increasing heart rate. It was surely going to stop working soon.  
  
‘Forgive me, I misunderstood then.’ Sirius allowed himself a genuine smile. He didn’t display them often as Ali had noticed. ‘Would it be okay, if I kissed you?’ He asked, just above a whisper as their faces were only inches apart. Ali felt lost for words as she quickly pulled her bottom lip into her mouth and wet it with her tongue. She nodded, never breaking eye contact and Sirius’s lips descended on her own without further ado.   
  
Once again she was locking lips with him. She couldn’t even fathom how different this was to when Cresswell had kissed her. She felt literally nothing that day. But with Sirius, it was like she was melting from the inside out. Her insides felt like they’d been hit with the  _tarantallegra_  jinx. As he kissed her over and over again she felt herself dissolving into ecstasy.   
  
She felt her shoulder blades settle on a wall but she wasn’t aware of how they got there. All she could think about was the kiss completely encompassing her entire being. She felt her arms moving against her will and wrapping up around Sirius’s neck. She wasn’t even slightly aware of what she was doing, it just seemed to happen. Sirius still had one hand secured on her jawline and the other was resting on the small of her back, holding her against him.   
  
She’d never done anything like this before in her life but somehow she knew what to do. She felt her chest press against his and suddenly Sirius broke their lips apart, panting. When she looked up at him, she’d never seen him look more attractive. He was biting his lip looking down at her with his dark eyebrows furrowed in thought. Suddenly his face lowered and his lips lay a gentle kiss on her tingling ones.   
  
She felt her heart jump. He then kissed her cheek gently, then once more on the other side. She had never felt more desirable in her life.   
  
‘You’re so beautiful.’ As the words left his mouth Ali felt as though she was going to melt into the ground right then and there. It wasn't the first time anyone had called her beautiful, but it was the first time she truly felt it. He lay one more gentle kiss on her forehead then drew back to look down at her. There was a lingering silence. Suddenly she couldn’t take the distance and pushed herself up onto her tip toes and claimed his lips for her own. It didn’t take Sirius long to take the control back however and she felt like putty in his arms.   
  
When his lips left her own and started tracing down to her neck, as they had once before, she felt her chest rising and falling heavily with her breathing.   
  
‘Don’t leave more marks there you weirdo. Do you know how much make up I’ve had to use to cover them up this week?’ His lips suddenly hit a spot towards the back of her neck, on the curve where her shoulder began, that made her yelp with pleasure. Sirius laughed against her skin, his breath so warm and soft, and Ali suddenly felt incredibly stupid.  
  
‘It’s not funny!’ She opened her eyes and looked around. They were no longer in the hall. They were in a classroom. When had they moved here? How was she so entranced by Black’s lips that she hadn’t realised they had completely changed locations?  
  
‘I don’t think it’s funny at all.’ Sirius spoke, descending on the same spot and forcing her teeth to firmly assault her bottom lip. When he pulled away and she felt her thoughts returning to her, she pushed him.  
  
‘Black!’ She warned, needing to have some kind of control once more.  
  
‘Yes?’ He replied, smiling at her sweetly. She was secured between him and a wall, so she didn’t feel very tough at the present moment.  
  
‘What is this?’ She asked, feeling very confused.  
  
‘What do you mean?’ He didn’t seem to be paying very much attention to the conversation as he pushed the cardigan she was wearing off her shoulder and began placing light kisses there. Her eyes rolled back in her head momentarily from the pleasure elicited by his lips on her skin.   
  
‘Do-' she felt utterly ridiculous right now, but she was coming to terms with the fact that she certainly had feelings for Sirius Black. She had to be sure it was mutual. ‘Do you like me?’  
  
‘I think that’s pretty obvious.’ He replied pulling away from her shoulder to look at her directly. ‘Do you like me?’ He asked the question, but by the look on his face it was apparent he was already well aware of the answer. That aggravated her.  
  
‘No.’ She gave him a somewhat disgusted yet blasé look.  
  
‘Really?’ He asked, then placed a kiss on her lips. ‘Not at all?’ He placed another and Ali could hear her own heart thumping in her chest.  
  
She took a deep breath in, pretending to contemplate it. ‘Nope. You’re nothing special.’ As she replied Sirius pulled back to look down at her with a quirked brow. She just smiled up at him sweetly, completely contrasting her sour words.   
  
‘Do you want to come hang out with Moony, Wormtail and I or not?’ He almost sounded like he was dangling the idea of spending time with him before her as an incentive. Who did he think he was? She was Aaliyah Adams,  _Queen_  of enjoying time spent alone. He was clearly unaware of who he was dealing with.  
  
‘Well, if Remus is going to be there. I suppose I could  _endure_  your company.’ She laughed malevolently up at him over the face he made.  
  
‘You’re a little shit.’   
  
‘You’re only just noticing?’ Ali slipped out of his grasp and laughed all the way to the door of the classroom. She completely missed the blissful smile adorning Sirius’s lips as he followed suit soon after.


	47. Definitions and tactics

The last week of Ali’s life had been one of the strangest of her existence. She wasn’t quite sure how it happened, but her most prized hobby, studying, had taken a back seat to something. That something being Sirius Black. It had happened a few times in her life, certainly. She had been known to drop her need for books to satisfy her need for school rules being obeyed. She had run around the castle for over a week in search of Sirius and his friends in the past, and even her need for personal hygiene had taken a back seat to that.   
  
But this time it was different. She wasn’t pushing aside her precious time for learning, she was downright giving it the boot. She wasn’t really sure what had come over her. Sirius Black was a  _terrible_  role model. And every chance he seemed to get at securing her on her own, which considering her track record of having exactly no close friends it wasn’t hard, he seemed to be taking it. Which as it so happened, had been not five minutes beforehand. She was  _supposed_  to be on rounds, upholding her duty as a prefect. And what had happened? Oh she had caught someone out of bed alright. But he’d certainly meant for her to.   
  
When 1am had rolled around she realised rounds had been over for nearly an hour and decided to get to bed. She had told Sirius to stick back so they wouldn’t be caught together coming into the common room at this unwarlockly hour. He had agreed to her terms and so here she was, stepping through the portrait hole at a quarter past one in the morning on a school night. She looked around and luckily there was next to no one in the common room. She did notice one mop of untidy black hair on the couch before the fire though and wondered what James was doing up on his own.  
  
Was he waiting for Sirius?   
  
‘No,’ she heard a light, droning voice say, ‘stop it, James.’ Ali tilted her head to the side as James’ shoulders began shaking slightly with laughter. She made her way over to where he sat and peered around the couch to see who had spoken. Because the pitch of that voice certainly didn’t belong to a boy under the age of thirteen.  
  
James noticed her shadow and turned his head to meet her. He held a finger up to his lips and looked down at the girl fast asleep in his lap. Ali couldn’t help but smile as she came around and took a seat on the armchair across from the couple. Lily had clearly dozed off with her head on James' lap, where she looked to have been reading one of their textbooks.  
  
‘James.’ She mumbled again shaking her head slightly in her sleep. She was clearly cross with whatever the subconscious James was doing at present. ‘James, that’s not a suitable present for a girl.’  
  
Both Ali and James raised a hand to their mouths to muffle their laughter.   
  
‘Just finished rounds, Adams?’ James whispered as he continued to drag his fingers through Lily’s long, deep red hair. Ali presumed this was probably what put her to sleep in the first place.  
  
‘Uh, yep. Just being a model student, as always.’ She humoured herself with a light, dead laugh. She was a disgrace to the word authority. If anyone had been out of bed tonight, they would have gotten away with it. As the last two hours had been spent in a very unladylike fashion, in an empty classroom on the first floor.  
  
‘What time is it? We’ve been studying and going over Head duties for hours.’   
  
‘Uh, midnight. Yeah, yeah definitely midnight.’ She prayed the boys didn’t have any clocks handy in their dorm, because that was a dirty great lie. Midnight would be the time she  _should_  have been back from rounds. James didn’t seem to notice her inner turmoil however as he brushed a few hairs off Lily’s forehead. Ali watched him silently for a moment.   
  
He had the hint of a smile touching just one side of his mouth. The way he was looking down at Lily, someone could have painted them in that moment and the picture would have touched hearts. As Ali watched James continue to drag his fingers through his lady’s hair, seeming so very content with just being near her, she felt herself sigh. James looked up at her, breaking out of his Lily induced trance.  
  
‘You two-' Ali started trying to think of the correct wording for what she wanted to convey, ‘-you really work. The two of you. I honestly used to feel sorry for you, Potter. I thought she hated you. But here you are, playing with her hair by fire light. It’s disgusting you know. How cute the two of you are.’ She was as honest as they came, and to Ali, her words were a compliment.   
  
James tried to stop himself moving too much from his laughter for fear of waking Lily.  
  
‘Thanks?’ He replied, ‘If we’re being truthful, I thought she hated me, too. But there were tiny giveaways here and there. Smiles she used to give me after lecturing me. Catching her looking at me in classes. I guess I’m just lucky that such an amazing witch would think I, of all people, was worth her time.’   
  
‘Merlin, Potter. Don’t start sobbing of happiness or anything. You’ll wake her up.’  Ali rolled her eyes, but couldn’t stop the devious smirk from adorning her lips.   
  
‘Sod off, Adams. How’s your week been? I haven’t seen Sirius around much.’ Ali’s face snapped back in his direction instantly after the call and James’s expression spoke legions. It was at that  _very_  inopportune moment that Sirius clambered through the portrait hole. Both their heads transitioned to his direction at the same time to watch him elegantly straighten back up and register them.  
  
Neither of the three conscious occupants of the common room spoke. Each set of eyes kept flicking back and forth between each other. Sirius made his way over to them slowly. Ali swallowed as he drew up to his full height next to the couch by the two of them.  
  
‘Evening.’ James spoke softly, still dragging fingers through Lily’s hair.   
  
‘I was just-' Sirius raised a hand up to his lips to bite down on his thumb nail, ‘-taking a stroll?’   
  
Ali felt her eyes rolling back in her head and her bottom jaw jutting out from the sheer pain that sentence caused her. Did he just end his excuse as a  _question_? Could he have come up with a  _worse_  excuse for being out at  **one am**? What was he? A freaking wistful pre-teen in a romance novel?  
  
‘Get your thumb out of your mouth, Black.’ She shook her head, glaring at him. Sirius quickly pulled his thumb away from his face and James started snickering under his breath.  
  
‘Wow, well I’ll just leave you to… “tell him off” for being out past curfew then, shall I, Adams?’ James wasn’t even looking in either of their directions as he spoke. He was watching Lily. He crouch over and placed a kiss on her lips and she stirred.  
  
‘Ja-Po… Potter?’ Lily said sleepily, opening her eyes. She let out a massive yawn and stretched out her arms above her head like a well-rested cat. Once she was in a sitting position she looked around at the weird situation, still groggy from sleep.  
  
‘Come on babe, let’s go to bed.’ James stood while Lily surveyed the situation.  
  
‘Are you two dating yet or what?’ Lily eyed them off and Ali felt herself choke on literally nothing. It was as if air had suddenly accumulated in her throat, causing her to cough up, well, air.  
  
‘Go to bed you corny tossers.’ Sirius shook his head at the two of them while James continued to laugh at their expense.   
  
‘See you upstairs Love-Pup!’ James sang, pulling Lily up and leading her over to the stairs where they parted ways. James was still chuckling, but he paused to kiss his redhead goodnight.   
  
‘Did you tell them?’ Ali flicked her accusatory sentence at Sirius before he even had a chance to turn back to look at her.  
  
‘What? No.’ He looked down to her in the armchair angrily like he didn’t much appreciate being told off when he wasn’t in the wrong. But his face suddenly softened. ‘They don’t know anything. I’m great at keeping secrets.’  
  
‘Shut up, I’m the mastermind secret keeper. If anyone found out, it’d all be your fault.’ Ali put her nose in the air and shut her eyes knowing full well the two of them had probably been much less secretive than was desirable. It was hard to be secretive when you got carried away with each other’s lips the instant no one else was in view.   
  
‘Ah yes, I’m to fault. Again. Forgive me.’ Sirius spoke and Ali felt his hand settle over the top of hers.   
  
‘You are not forgiven.’ She replied stubbornly, eyes still closed.  
  
‘Oh please, Miss Prefect, I promise I’ll be a good boy from now on?’ Sirius could barely keep the laughter from his voice. His hand pulled on hers and lifted her out of the armchair and into his arms.  
  
‘Ew, never call me that again. It’s disturbing.’ Her mouth betrayed her words though. Her eyebrows were furrowed but she was smiling in her new position against his chest.   
  
‘Sure thing, kid.’ He looked perfectly happy as he looked down at her, his arms wrapped tightly around her waist. He leant down and placed a kiss on her forehead and Ali hated to admit how much she enjoyed those over the past few days. If there was one thing about Sirius Black she would never change, it would be how gently he kissed her forehead when he seemed to be happy.   
  
Suddenly, she couldn’t stop a yawn from escaping her mouth and she rested her cheek against his collarbone. Since Aaliyah was young there was one thing she always found strange about people, and it was their constant need to touch one another. It wasn’t something she had ever enjoyed. People hugging one another, kissing each other on the cheek goodbye, it was just simply unnecessary to her. She had even been a little strange with her own family at times. She just didn’t value skin to skin contact. At all.   
  
But for some reason she just could not describe with words, it felt  _right_  being so close to Sirius. The skin of her cheek against his chest wasn’t uncomfortable to her. His arms securing her body against his wasn’t unwanted. He placed his chin down on the top of her head and that didn’t disturb her. It made her feel… safe.   
  
‘I’m-' she debated inwardly whether this was okay to say aloud. She decided, well if she was exchanging saliva with this boy, she could be a little vulnerable with him. ‘I’m not ready to go up to bed yet.’ She admitted.  
  
‘Me either.’ She could have sworn she could  _hear_  the smile on his face as he spoke those words even though she had her eyes shut against his chest. Sirius shifted and took a seat on the couch where Lily and James had vacated. Ali watched him, missing the contact. He looked up at her and held an arm up for her to settle under. She just smiled and sat down beside him, resting up against him like an elated puppy dog. Who  _was_ she?  
  
She felt his finger rest under her chin and pull up to shift her face. Then he lent down and kissed her on the lips. She was sure she would never find this tedious in her life. Kissing could be two  _very_  different experiences with different people. But there was more to this, and she knew it. They had been, for lack of a better term, swapping spit for three days now. Anywhere they could. In empty classrooms and deserted hallways. But for all the time they had been spending in each other’s presence, they hadn’t really talked too much about it.   
  
‘Uhm, Black?’ Sirius hummed a reply as they watched the dying fire before them, Ali rested comfortably against him, ‘what exactly are we doing?’  
  
‘I reckon we’re sitting on a couch, Adams. Are you okay?’ He seemed to find himself amusing and so Ali pushed herself off of him and smacked him square in the solar plexus and Sirius heaved a cough.   
  
‘Don’t be a dick, Black. I mean, this. Me sitting up against you. You-' she struggled with this. It was not her style, ‘-you, finding me whenever I’m alone and… stuff. What is this? I’ve never done whatever this is with anyone.’   
  
‘Neither have I.’ Sirius admitted as they sat across from each other at opposite ends of the couch now. That made Ali’s heart race a little. He hadn’t ever done this with another girl before? This wasn’t just a Sirius Black thing to do?   
  
‘So, are we-' she knew what she wanted to ask. She wanted to ask if they were together, essentially. Like Lily and James. Would they continue to hide in classrooms or would they start exhibiting disgusting displays in front of others? She honestly didn’t want to make out with him in front of people, the thought of it was nerve wracking. But she did, for some reason, want Sirius to display in some way that they were- what? Together?   
  
Did she? Were they? She was very confused. But the thing confusing her the most was that she seemed to  _want_  to be ‘together’ with him.   
  
‘What?’ Sirius was watching her and when she looked back at him, his brows were creased and his hair was falling into his face. She had always known he was attractive, she wasn’t blind. But recently she was becoming aware just  _how_  attractive he was.  
  
‘Are we… together?’ As the words left her mouth they felt strange and other worldly. Did she just  _ask_  that? She watched Sirius’s face soften in thought. She watched him play with his lip and reach up to brush his dark hair out of his face. He was taking an awfully long time to answer this. She felt her face turning to a grimace as each second fell by.   
  
‘Uhm,’ Sirius looked over at her, ‘how about, for now, we don’t put a label on it?’   
  
Suddenly Aaliyah’s world stopped dead. Her scowl died and it was replaced with a relaxed look as she heard the words smacking around in her head. Did he just shut her proposal of actually being together down? Did he just tell her not to put a label on what they were doing? Like some cheap floozy? She blinked and he swam back into her vision. Then she realized she wasn’t breathing.  
  
‘Is… is that okay?’ Sirius asked cautiously.   
  
Ali smiled, ‘oh, that’s… fine.’ It most certainly was not fine. ‘No labels?’   
  
‘For now.’ Sirius nodded. Ali’s jaw squared as she gritted her teeth. She nodded back.   
  
‘I have to go to bed now.’ As she stood, he stood with her. He pulled her into his body and kissed her cheek. Five minutes ago she might have enjoyed that. But at the present moment, she wanted to scream.   
  
‘Goodnight.’ Sirius smiled at her and she hoped the smile she was giving him in return was believable. She turned and made her way over to the girl’s stairs and took each step up slowly and as she made it into her dorm, she silently changed and slipped into her pyjamas. She was still devoid one dressing gown. Snowball was fast asleep on her bed and so she had to get under the covers far on the left side so not to wake him.   
  
Once in bed and the darkness and silence was enveloping her she felt how hard her heart was thumping. She was still smiling rather crazily and so she touched her hands to her cheeks to stop herself. She just got completely shut down by Sirius Black. Not rejected in so many words, he certainly wanted to continue snogging her, but she certainly lost any kind of upper hand just then.   
  
When she fell asleep she dreamt of Anna and her gang laughing at her. They were making fun of her for thinking she might have had a chance with the school heart throb. Suddenly she realised everyone in the school was laughing at her, including one Sirius Black. She awoke with a start and realised it was almost time for breakfast. Did she even want to eat? She got up and went about her morning routine normally and before she knew it she was standing outside her door, dressed and ready for classes.   
  
‘Hey, coming down to breakfast?’ A friendly voiced asked. It was Lily. She was alone. Ali blinked at her and wondered, would she know what to do in this situation?  
  
‘Um, Lily. Could I- could I borrow you for a moment?’  
  
‘Yeah, of course.’ Ali secured her hand around Lily’s wrist and pulled her into her dorm which was thankfully empty of all occupants besides Snowball. She sat Lily down and stared at her.  
  
‘What’s up, Ali?’ Lily asked. Ali was happy that Lily seemed to be the second person in her life to adopt her preferred name willingly.  
  
Ali swallowed, ‘remember how I- made out with Black?’ Lily nodded with a grin. ‘Remember how I seemed to figure out I had some kind of- feelings… for him?’ Lily kept nodding like she was overjoyed by this, ‘Well we’ve kind of been-'  
  
‘Making out a lot?’ Lily was still nodding and smiling.  
  
‘Uh, ineloquently put, yes.’ Lily squealed and Aaliyah had to cover her ears for a moment.  
  
‘So are you dating yet, or  _what_?’ Lily seemed to be much happier about this than Ali anticipated.   
  
‘Well, I was wondering the same thing. So last night I kind of fumbled over the same question with him.’ Lily grabbed Ali’s knees in wait, ‘and he said,’ she took in a deep breath, ‘he didn’t want to put a label on it.’   
  
Lily fumbled and almost fell off the bed, ‘he  _what_?’ she straightened herself up and stared across at Ali like she had never been so disrespected.  
  
‘Is that, well, normal? Is that how these things work? I’m a little confused.’ By Lily’s reaction, Ali was starting to believe she might be right in thinking Sirius had just displayed a very  _Sirius Black_ , school dickhead, move.   
  
‘That little  _twerp_.’ Lily balled her hand into a fist, ‘Doesn’t want to put a label on it. Did he  _actually_  say that? So what, he’s been making out with you for the better half of a week, and when you tried to define it, he gave you  _that_  line?’  
  
‘I’m going to take a stab in the dark and say it’s  _not_  normal then?’ Ali could feel something inside her swirling around. Had she been a complete fool? Was she just going weak-kneed and googly-eyed over a boy and missing all the blatantly obvious signals? Was she turning into one of her clueless roommates? She couldn’t be one of those girls! She made fun of those girls on a daily basis.  
  
‘What did you say in return, Adams? This is of upmost importance, word for word!’ Lily demanded.  
  
‘Uh, I said it was fine.’ As Ali replied she felt herself moving away from Lily a little, she was becoming increasingly better at this social back and forth but Lily currently resembled someone that might have spent too long in Azkaban. ‘I don’t even know  _why_  I said it was fine. I just smiled and said it was fine. It wasn’t fine Lily.  _It wasn’t_.’  
  
‘Of course it wasn’t  _fine_.’  
  
‘Crap, Lily what have I done? I messed up, didn’t I? What do I do now? Should I just never speak to him again?’  
  
Lily chuckled, ‘You know for anyone else I might say try it, but I feel like you might succeed with that endeavour. And even if he’s being a prat about it, I know you’ll both hate that road.’ Lily thought for a moment with a finger on her chin while a war raged on inside Ali’s chest. She wasn’t sure what she wanted right now. She wanted to hit Sirius Black. If it wasn’t for him, she would be perfectly normal right now and probably pushing in some early morning study, not debating tactics over a boy. ‘Ali if he doesn’t want to put a label on it, make him work for it.’  
  
‘I’m sorry?’   
  
‘I mean, make him  _want_  to put a label on it.’ Lily explained.  
  
Ali was confused. How on earth did you make a boy do anything? ‘And, how do I do that?’  
  
‘Make him jealous.’ The smile on Lily’s face as she stood before her made Ali ever so slightly worried. It was that smile that put fear into James Potter, she was sure of it.


	48. Back to back Black

Ali had been given  _very_ strict orders to abide by today. Apparently, Sirius Black was going to be getting his own back, and Aaliyah Adams was going to be the one giving it to him. Or so Lily had told her. She was honestly very confused. She was supposed to continue kissing Sirius like nothing was wrong. But she was going to make him rue the day he said he wanted no labels on what they were doing. As Ali came down to breakfast with Lily, they entered the great hall of their last day of classes before the Christmas holidays began.   
  
When they entered, the four boys were in their usual spot near the entrance. James was carrying on loudly beside Sirius, who looked for the most part quite entertained. He seemed very relaxed though with his head rested in his hand. Peter was sitting edged towards James with a massive grin. Remus didn’t seem overly interested and was looking off down the table. Ali followed his eyes and realized he was watching Marlene.  
  
Marlene was staring down at her plate with Mary by her side. Suddenly James noticed Lily and jumped up.  
  
‘Hey babe! Sit with us?’ James asked, placing a kiss on her cheek.   
  
Suddenly Sirius stood up beside James and smiled at Ali, ‘morning ladies.’ He bowed his head graciously, his hair falling forward like a wave of silk, and Lily elbowed Ali as she looked at Sirius with unabashed rage. She quickly corrected her expression to the best of her ability as Sirius raised his head, smiling back at him.  
  
‘No, I think we’ll join the girls.’ Lily told James and gave Ali a look.  
  
‘Enjoy your breakfast.’ Ali grated out trying to continue on smiling. Sirius watched her, and looked mildly concerned. Lily grabbed her and they left the boys to themselves and sat down with Marlene and Mary.  
  
‘Ali, that was terrible. What did I tell you?’  
  
Aaliyah sighed loudly, ‘to make everything I say sound enticing.  _That’s not possible, Lily._  Have you  _met_  me?’  
  
‘Morning.’ Mary smiled at them both, thoroughly amused. Marlene didn’t look like she’d even noticed their arrival.  
  
‘Try  _harder_.’ Lily warned her, then turned to Mary and Marlene, ‘So, would you like in on the gossip?’ Lily announced as she looked outside the confines their party to see if anyone else was listening.  
  
‘Lily, no.’ Ali realised what she was about to do.  
  
‘Nonsense, Ali, they could have some good advice. You  _always_  discuss this stuff with your girls.’ She winked at her, ‘so Sirius Black has a  _crush._ ’ At this, Marlene seemed to register them. She looked worse for wear.   
  
‘You’re  _joking_?’ Mary also looked to be very interested.  
  
‘No. She’s here with us. Black’s keen on Adams.’ As Lily said this, Ali felt her face going red and she slouched down in her seat. Mary started giggling and a hint of a smile crossed Marlene’s lips.   
  
‘Do you like him?’ Marlene asked Ali directly.   
  
Ali first looked affronted by the attention, but then resigned with a sigh, ‘It is a very unfortunate thing I have come to terms with.’   
  
‘Shame. You could have had fun with that.’ Marlene shrugged.  
  
‘So they’ve been getting together a lot, right. And when Ali tries to define their relationship,’ Lily paused for dramatic effect and Mary sat forward looking very eager, ‘he says he doesn’t want to put a label on it.’ As Lily finished, Mary’s jaw dropped.  
  
‘Burn him.’ Marlene said without a hint of humour. Ali decided in that moment that she very much liked Marlene and laughed at her comment. Suddenly the three girls launched into a conversation about how exactly to make Sirius Black pay. Ali was being told to do a very many things, most of which included other boys. She wasn’t sure how okay with these plans she was, but agreed to as much as she could, for Lily looked like she was set on it all. And a few of the things Marlene came up with made Ali’s callous, sadistic side laugh.   
  
By the time the bell went for classes to begin, they left the hall and Ali was alone, making her way towards transfiguration.   
  
‘Oh! Ali!’ She heard a familiar voice call out to her a little ways down the stairs descending to the dungeons.  
  
‘Oh, good morning Professor Slughorn.’ She beamed at her potions master as he came back up to meet her.  
  
‘I say, Ali. You are going to attend my little Christmas soiree, are you not?’  
  
‘I wouldn’t dream of ever missing it, Professor. It’s my favourite Christmas event.’ Adults were so easy to please, Ali thought as Slughorn jostled around happily by her reply.  
  
‘Don’t forget, you’re more than welcome to bring a friend. From what I hear, most people seem to be attending with one another or bringing a plus one.’ Slughorn nodded to her excitedly. ‘Head boy and girl are coming together. So delighted about that.’  
  
‘Of course! Such a smart match. Uh, Professor.’ Ali started and Slughorn nodded for her to continue, ‘you don’t know if Sirius Black would be attending?’  
  
Slughorn thought on this for a moment, ‘I do remember Potter mentioning it actually, yes, he should be attending. Were you planning on asking him? You know, I thought you and Regulus might go together? Smart match, the two of you. Sirius is of course brilliant, probably a fair amount above his brother. But I dare say Regulus is a little more… refined.’   
  
‘I wasn’t planning on taking Sirius, no Professor, but your suggestion is duly noted. I’d be delighted to accompany Regulus. He’s a lovely boy.’ She agreed in an attempt to avert the conversation away from Sirius related topics.  
  
‘Splendid! I’ll see you later on today in class then, Adams, best not be late for your first one of the morning.’  
  
‘Of course not Professor,’ She smiled at Slughorn as he started back down the stairs off to the dungeons, and made her way to her first floor classroom. As she sat through transfiguration, she attempted the non-verbal  _Crinus Muto_  spell required to change the colour of her eyebrows. By the end of class she’d managed to get them to a lovely shade of pink.  
  
‘Well done, Adams. You’re really improving with your practical work lately. I must say, I’m impressed.’ McGonagall said as she passed by Ali’s lonesome desk.  
  
‘Thank you, Professor. I’ve been practicing.’ Ali admitted with a smile.  
  
‘Well it’s paying off, if you keep this up you might beat Barty for top of the year. That will at least make up for the loss of the match against them. Horace simply won’t let me hear the end of it.’ McGonagall shook her head at the memory and made her way around to her desk to direct the class about their homework. As she was speaking however, Ali’s mind drifted. It drifted off to the reason she was improving so much with her transfiguration course work. And it was all Sirius Black’s doing. Suddenly she felt a pang in her heart. She really was developing some kind of fierce attachment to the mongrel.   
  
As she collected up her books and left, she walked the halls on her way to Ancient Runes, up on the sixth floor. She passed by a few seventh year Gryffindor’s and Ravenclaw’s clearly coming from class and heading to their next. She noticed James among them, chatting enthusiastically to Peter.   
  
‘Hey, Adams!’ James called out to her as they passed by, waving. Ali merely smiled back and offered a limp wave to the both of them which caused a few whispers.  
  
But that wasn’t what bothered her. Where was Sirius? Her eyes darted around as she passed by a few third years. It didn’t take her long to figure out where Sirius was however because suddenly a hand seized her book bag and yanked her into a small alcove behind a tapestry.  
  
‘What the heck are you-' Ali wasn’t able to finish her rant though, because Sirius’s lips were on her own, silencing her. For a moment she forgot her mission and just dissolved into the pleasant contact. Sirius’s lips were on the same level as textbooks among Ali’s favourite past times lately. And that was dangerous.  
  
When Sirius’s hand pulled her closer against his body and his other looped a curl around his finger she started to regain her ability to think.  
  
‘Hey!’ She pushed herself off him. Sirius looked slightly confused with a hint of disappointed. That’s when Ali heard Lily’s voice in her head.  _Don’t change the way you treat him. Keep kissing him. Don’t let him think anything is wrong. But flirt with other guys around you. Act like what you’re doing with him is what you do with everyone._  
  
‘I mean,  _hey_.’ Ali tried to grin. But her mouth twitched in the pain that grin caused her, ‘how was-'  _don’t say class. That’s typical Ali._  For some reason her inner monologue now had Lily's voice and was coaching her through this and she wasn’t sure how or why, ‘how was  _not_  learning? Ha. Learning’s… weird. And not cool.’ She felt her heart breaking in her chest.  
  
‘What?’ Sirius raised a brow at her.   
  
 _Make him want you_. ‘Do you- like my uniform? I put it on myself.’ She splayed her hands out before her in some kind of a show. She had no idea what she was doing. She could almost hear Lily screaming at her about it.  
  
Sirius started to laugh, ‘are you trying to be cute? Because it’s working.’ He swooped down without warning and claimed her lips again. Ali knew she was supposed to be flirting with other boys but… how could she even comprehend doing that when all she wanted to do was stay concealed behind this tapestry with Sirius and his experienced lips?  
  
She broke away from the heated kiss, trying to catch her breath.  
  
‘I’m- we’re going to be late for our next class.’  
  
‘I don’t really care.’ Sirius smiled down at her.   
  
‘Sirius Black!’ Ali started, fully intent on chastising him about the importance of arriving at classes at the specified time so that you would not miss any important information about the class. Or disturb learning by making a scene when you  _did_  arrive part way through. But then Lily was in her head again.  _Don’t do anything that’s going to make him want you less. You need to make him yearn for you._  
  
‘Sirius Black, you-' she was at a loss for what to say. Sirius was looking at her again, eyebrow raised and looking too good to be confused, ‘-you, ah-  _are_! You are- er- such a rebel. Oh it’s-' she tried to channel Anna Cox, ‘so... tantalizing.’ She was frowning as the sentence ended though as if she had disgusted herself with her own words. Truthfully, she had.  
  
‘Are you okay?’ Sirius it seemed was equally disgusted. Ali suddenly felt the need to kiss him. Thank merlin he wasn’t into this kind of stuff. The bell rang, signalling the limited time left to get to their next class.  
  
‘Oh no.’ Ali knew this wasn’t going well and grabbed Sirius and launched them back out into the open. It was strange how many hiding spots Sirius knew about around the castle that she didn’t. She’d have to take note of them all for when she was on rounds next. ‘How do you manage to always find me, by the way?’ She asked as the thought came to her. Sirius shrugged with a casual smile.  
  
Then a sixth year Ravenclaw Ali knew to be the younger brother of Bertram Aubrey walked by and Ali was pulling at straws now trying to keep up with Lily’s pointers.  
  
‘Hey, Aubrey. You look- adequately dressed today. Great work you- dragon.’ She tried to wink but she blinked in the process and waved her pointer finger at poor Benjamin Aubrey in a would-be show of allure. The perplexed Ravenclaw just stared at her for a moment and then looked at Sirius.  
  
‘Have you hexed her for getting you into trouble again or something?’ Aubrey asked Sirius quizzically. This aggravated Ali as Sirius chuckled behind her.  
  
‘ _Get to class Aubrey you bloody slacker!_ ’ She shouted and Aubrey was gone before she could yell at him further.  
  
‘I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but it’s entertaining to say the least.’ Sirius said behind her. He leant over her shoulder and placed a chaste kiss on her cheek, ‘but we better get to class. Don’t want to get into any trouble or disturb any learning.’ He whispered in her ear and Ali felt as if she was just hit with a heating charm and could have melted into the floor over it. It was the sexiest thing that had ever come out of his mouth. Or anyone’s mouth, for that matter.  
  
‘Yeah.’ Was all she managed to get out, turning around to him.  
  
‘See you later then.’ He winked at her perfectly and turned around to make his way down to class. Why didn’t his winks turn into blinks? Why was he so good at making her turn into a puddle of emotions be them aggravated or blissful? Ali sighed and quickly made her way to ancient runes.  
  
Professor Babbling's lecture took her mind off frivolous romance and got it back on the track of hieroglyphs and magic. A place it was much better situated. After class she found herself invested in both the content she had just covered and getting Sirius Black to want her more. She was so distracted she may as well have been walking around with her eyes closed.   
  
Suddenly she felt hands close over her shoulders and halt her, ‘you might want to pay a little more attention to where you’re walking there, Adams. If you walk into a wall, it’s only going to cause more people to be laughing at you in corridors.’ She found herself staring at none other than Regulus Black.  
  
‘Oh, sorry. Minds in another world.’ She shook her head trying to return to the present.  
  
‘I gathered.’ He simply nodded his head slightly and made to leave her alone.  
  
‘Wait! Black.’ Ali knew this was probably the worst idea. It was his  _brother_  for crying out loud. But this was  _sure_  to annoy Sirius. Regulus merely waited for her to speak, so she continued. ‘Could I ask a favour of you?’  
  
‘I’m sure I could oblige, if it’s within reason.’ Regulus replied raising a brow. He was so  _very_  much like his brother, just mostly better spoken.   
  
‘Would you attend Slughorn’s party with me?’ As she asked, Regulus seemed to contemplate it. He looked a little more than confused so Ali decided it was best to be honest. ‘I won’t lie to you, it’s part of an elaborate plot to annoy your brother.’ Suddenly Regulus’s face relaxed and a hint of a smirk crossed his usually blank lips.  
  
‘Sure, why not.’ Regulus left her with a quaint smile and a nod of his head. Aaliyah watched his retreating back as he walked away. What was this day? What was she doing? This wasn’t the type of girl she was. This game was slowly twisting her into something she wasn’t sure of. She didn’t want to play it, but when she asked Lily if she should have just approached Sirius with her confusion, Lily protested it most fiercely.   
  
Regulus  _was_  a perfectly polite example of a Black. He was probably much more suited to her. He could probably have kept up intelligent conversation without smirking at her like a goof ball. He probably wouldn’t have reprimanded her for reading her darn textbook. He came to her rescue silently by sitting beside her. Slughorn seemed to deem them good for one another. Regulus was certainly a much more dignified candidate for a date to the party than Sirius I-like-trouble Black.   
  
But unfortunately, just thinking his name seemed to have a very undesirable effect on her. She smiled dreamily and pictured his handsome face. Her mind would travel to a far off place where she was alone with the trouble maker, making their own kind of trouble. Yes it was very unfortunate when a law abiding citizen fell for a petty criminal. Very unfortunate indeed.  
  
She enjoyed the rest of the day, filled with classes. For the most part Sirius seemed to be absent besides when he found her coming out of the library after the lunch break and offered to walk her to her next class.  
  
‘Uh, you don’t think that’s a bad idea?’ Ali asked suspiciously. If he didn’t want to put a label on what they were doing, surely that was because he didn’t want the repercussions of the student body seeing them together in any other situation besides her giving him a detention?  
  
‘Why?’ Sirius asked, nudging her to start walking anyway.  
  
‘Because you-'  _Don’t let him know anything about this. Act natural!_  ‘uh, never mind.’ Ali swallowed. What was natural again? She pushed some of her long thick curls out of her face very awkwardly. She smiled and fluttered her eyelashes at Sirius as they kept in step with one another. She wasn’t quite sure her smile and movements were as fluid as she hoped they were.  
  
Sirius blinked at her with a frown on his face. ‘Do you feel ill?’   
  
Ali threw her head forward in defeat. How on earth was she supposed to go about this when she had exactly zero sexual appeal? She looked up at Sirius with a pout of resignation as they passed through a crowd of students that whispered in their wake.   
  
Sirius laughed at her now, ‘you’re adorable when you make that face.’   
  
‘I’m not adorable! I’m fierce and have authority over you.’ Ali pouted again.  
  
Sirius continued to laugh and pulled a hand up to mess her hair, ‘sure you do.’   
  
Ali squealed and hit his hands away, scowling at him, ‘do you know how long it takes to do my hair? You don’t mess with curls, Sirius!’  
  
‘Yep, I hear you.’ He nodded at her, ‘enjoy class.’ He reached up and messed her hair again.  
  
‘Sirius Black you are the worst wizard on this planet!’ She screamed out to him as he made a run for it.  
  
‘Ugh, they’re at it again.’ Her dormmate Bianca muttered as she passed her by to enter their charms class.  
  
‘She really needs to give him a break.’ Maria agreed, passing her next. Ali just rolled her eyes and headed in after them, making her way to the front of the large classroom. She sat through class thinking of everything that had transpired and realised she was rubbish at flirting and all things it involved.    
  
Her last class of the day happened to be potions, and of course she refused to disappoint her favourite teacher. They were towards the end of their lesson when Slughorn came up behind Ali's desk where she was brewing her potion beside Regulus.  
  
‘Oh superb Ali, absolutely superb! And see here, Reg your brew is almost on par with our young potions master. She’s rubbing off on you. Completely my intention. Very happy the two of you have hit it off. Can’t wait for the Christmas party. So happy you’ll be attending together.  _Smart_  match.’ Slughorn rambled as he stood behind them chatting to neither one in particular. He clapped the two of them on opposing shoulders, forcing them to fall closer into one another.   
  
As he walked off muttering about his ‘overall plan’ for the two of them, Ali turned to look at Regulus. He actually seemed to be amused. Ali felt slightly light headed and happier than usual and so spoke her mind.  
  
‘It’s nice to see you smiling.’ It was a very rare thing to see someone usually so sombre doing it. It was much more becoming than the neutral, bland face he usually adopted. He looked even more like Sirius when he smiled, however. Ali wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing.  
  
‘I could say the same about you. You seem a lot happier lately.’ Ali wasn’t sure how he did it, but every word he spoke was always mixed with an elegant air. He never seemed to slip. ‘Who’s the lucky wizard?’ But then he did. The elegant air was replaced with what was surely cheek. It had to do with the potions they were brewing. The fumes of the euphoria elixirs were infecting them.  
  
Ali couldn’t help her smile, ‘I’m not at liberty to say, actually.’  
  
‘Ah, but you see, you already have, Adams.’ Regulus stirred his potion six times counter-clockwise at the same time Ali did. ‘Not the name perhaps, but there’s certainly someone. No one looks  _that_  goofy when brewing a euphoria elixir.’  
  
Ali smacked her shoulder into Regulus with her jaw dropped in outrage, ‘I don’t look  _goofy_!’ Regulus laughed at her shock and resentment as their potions both simmered to a bright yellow colour.   
  
‘Goofy is putting it nicely.’ Regulus continued to laugh at her expense.  
  
‘Watch your tongue boy, don’t forget I was undefeated in target practice in defence classes in fourth year.’ Ali glared back at him. But after a moment of silence, the two began chuckling together thanks to the fumes of their elixirs. As the bell rang a small rainbow reflected off the smoke of their potions and Ali noticed Regulus’s delight when he realised he seemed to have gotten the elixir to perfection.  
  
‘Shaping up to be not so shabby in the potions department after all, Black.’ She watched as he quickly buried his mirth and stood tall beside her.  
  
‘Well, I have just been copying everything you do.’ There was that cheek again. Ali smacked the back of her hand into his chest as they smiled at each other.  
  
‘Enjoy your holidays everyone! Make sure to have 12 inches of parchment on my desk on Golpalott’s Third Law by the first week back! No slacking off just because it’s Christmas.’ Slughorn chuckled at his own words and Ali wasn’t sure it was because he found himself funny or due to the excessive amount of fumes of the euphoria elixirs in the room.   
  
‘I’ll write to you about any arrangements for the party then, Adams, enjoy your holidays until then.’ Regulus spoke after they put away their unused ingredients, discarded the leftovers and packed away their cauldrons.   
  
‘Sure, send the owl to Ottery St Catchpole. It’s not hard to spot us.’ She waved to him, making her way out of the classroom first. As she climbed the stairs up to the third floor, she found herself smiling at their conversation. Regulus seemed to be, if she wasn’t mistaken, loosening up around her. And she around him. She might have  _actually_  made a friend in her own year level.  
  
‘What’s got you so happy?’ She knew that voice  _very_  well. She had made her way to her back table without having to look up once. And now that she had, she found Sirius perched casually on the desk in her hidden niche.  
  
‘Your brother, actually.’ She wasn’t about to lie, ‘he has manners. And he’s quite fun to talk to. Unlike some Black’s.’ She threw her nose in the air and dodged him to get to the other end of the table.  
  
‘Get  _back_  here.’ Was all she heard before she felt Sirius’s hands settle on her waist and began tickling her. She cried out, laughing loudly when he wouldn’t relent. ‘I’ll show  _you_  whose fun to talk to!’ Sirius continued, lifting Ali onto the table and tickling her further. Her back hit the tabletop as she writhed around in joyful agony. Tears formed in her eyes as she tried and failed to stop him.  
  
‘Who’s the best Black on campus, Adams?  _Who_?’ Sirius demanded, his smile wider than it had ever been from the laughter filling the air via the curly haired prefect before him.   
  
‘Stop!’ Ali managed to get out between cries of laughter. Sirius pulled his hands back suddenly from her mid-section and looked down at her expectantly. Ali pulled her lips into her mouth wondering if what she was about to do was a good idea. Then, she dared. ‘Regulus?’ She adopted a devious expression and Sirius mocked a face of shock before his hands returned to her waist and she was crying out laughter once again. It wasn’t long before Madam Pince found them and smacked them both with her feather duster and hissed.   
  
‘I’m so sorry, Irma! I’m so sorry!’ Ali chanted over and over again as Madam Pince shook her head at the two of them. When she left them, Ali shimmied off the desk and into a seat and Sirius took the one closest beside her.   
  
‘Did you really mean that?’ Sirius asked, suddenly quite serious. Ali looked to him, ready to agree that she most certainly had deciding she couldn’t be bothered with Lily’s complex advice anymore. But the expression Sirius wore stopped her abruptly. He looked as though he was trying his best to feign casual nonchalance. And usually this would have worked a treat with Ali, she was never one to pick up on social queues, let alone hidden ones. But she was starting to clue in to a lot of hidden things about Sirius Black.  
  
She reached a hand out and covered his left one, resting on the desk.  
  
‘No. Low and behold, my favourite Black.’ She admitted with a roll of her eyes and reached over to place a kiss on his cheek. When Sirius turned to her after she drew back, her entire body heated up from the look on his face. He was giving her the sweetest smile she had ever seen adorn his face. He leant over and kissed her and strangely the passion behind it was different from usual. It was stronger. Their chairs scraped and screeched as he moved them to get closer to her and before she knew it they were both standing and he was lifting her onto the desk.  
  
Her heart was racing and she realised she was making out with Sirius Black in the library. This was  _Holy Ground!_  They were defiling it! And then… she realised she didn’t care. The way he was kissing her was as if his life depended on it and she was not about to stop him. When he pushed his body down into her own their lips broke apart and a moan escaped her mouth. She quickly slapped a hand up over it and looked at him. He was grinning at her like he had unveiled some kind of treasure.  
  
‘Sirius! We’re going to get told off by Irma again! We can’t do this here.’ She smacked him, even though she was not so secretly relishing in the contact.   
  
‘Sorry.’ He spoke, panting, just centimetres from her face before pressing one final kiss to her forehead. Ali sighed with the regret of ending such a zealous interaction.   
  
‘Listen, Black,’ she started, getting back into her chair and trying to tidy up the mess they made, ‘I need to study, so if you’re going to sit here, you can to.’ She smacked him on the head lightly.  He grinned at her and nodded.  
  
‘To spend time with you? I would do a very many questionable things. Studying is one of them.’ As he spoke, he whipped out his textbook for advanced charms and NEWT levels and cracked his neck to either side, settling into his seat. When he turned to smile at her, Ali felt her chest become all light and squirmy. She absolutely hated the way this dweeb made her feel.   
  
‘Nerd.’ She whispered under her breath and it wasn’t long before Sirius’s hands had descended on her once more, tickling her until Madam Pince came over and yelled at them for the commotion Ali’s squeals were creating.   
  
After a few hours, Sirius started to become restless. Ali of course was very much used to silence and being left to her own thoughts for hours on end. But Sirius started to bore of reading his exam prep and charms course work. Ali stayed focused on her books, while Sirius started looking over to her at well placed intervals. She hadn’t seemed to notice. Finally Sirius got fed up with being ignored and placed his hand, under the table, on Aaliyah’s knee and squeezed the pressure point there causing the poor girl to nearly jump a foot in the air.  
  
‘Sirius Black!’  
  
‘Yes?’ He replied innocently, smiling back at her as if he’d done nothing wrong. Ali stared back at him blankly before narrowing her eyes.  
  
‘Just study, you pest.’ She gave in. Sirius saluted her and returned to his books. It was less than twenty minutes before he became bored yet again and reached out and stuck a finger in her ear.  
  
‘Stop it! What, are you five years old?’ Ali whispered, glaring at him. He just smiled back at her. Ali rolled her eyes at her own stupid question. Of course Sirius was a five year old. It was then that he leaned over and placed a kiss on her cheek. Ali sighed, knowing full well she wasn’t going to get any rest now that he was bored and it would probably have been best to just give in and do as he wanted by this point.  
  
‘You’re just so,' he started, placing another kiss on her cheek, ‘touchable. I can’t sit this close,' he kissed her again, and again, ‘and leave you be.’ He admitted, placing the last kiss on her lips. Ali felt her eye twitching. Oh yes, she was so  _very_  touchable. He just couldn’t bear to not touch her. But don’t put any labels on it. Labels were for moron’s right?  _Jackass_ , she thought as she smiled back at him.   
  
‘Padfoot?’ They heard James’ voice before he came around the corner and found the two of them. This gave Sirius sufficient time to jump a metre away from Ali and return very much to his own seat. ‘There you are!’ James smiled knowingly at the two of them.  
  
‘Evening, Potter.’ Ali replied, picking up her text and trying her best to ignore Sirius and his ridiculousness.   
  
‘Adams, you’re looking very pretty tonight.’ She looked up just in time to see James waggle his eyebrows over his glasses at Sirius.  
  
‘I’m just helping her with her transfiguration course work.’ Sirius spat out, looking anywhere but at James.  
  
‘Hey I need you for a second, could you come with me? It’s a letter from Mum.’ James requested, ignoring Sirius’s blatant lie. Sirius suddenly looked at Ali and Ali looked back over at him.  
  
‘Go on. You were getting annoying anyway.’ Ali shrugged.  
  
‘Ah, give us a sec, would you? I just want to help her with one more spell. I’ll meet you outside?’ Sirius asked and James nodded, waving goodbye and ambling off out of the maze of books. As soon as he was out of sight, Sirius pulled Ali’s chair back and launched her onto her feet.  
  
‘Sirius what the he-' but before she could finish her sentence, Sirius’s lips met her own and he kissed her forcibly against the wall of books behind them. Ali knew she didn’t want to protest, and so she allowed it. Sirius pulled back and kissed her over and over again and she felt her legs becoming weak underneath her. He was an insufferable jerk, but he knew how to kiss a girl, that much was sure. When he pulled away and set her free from the constraints of his body Ali felt immediately upset.  
  
‘I’ll write to you over the holidays.’ He smiled down at her and Ali couldn’t stop herself nodding. He kissed her once more and before she knew it, she was alone again. She cursed his existence as she felt all hot and flustered from the sweet contact. She’d never get her mind back to study now.


	49. Sirius's confession

James and Sirius’s term break differed greatly from their initial plans when Mrs Potter had written to the boys asking them to please come home for Christmas. Mr Potter had fallen very ill, and Mrs Potter had come to the realization that this could very well have been the last Christmas their family spent as a whole. Sirius had abandon his bachelor pad in London and taken up residence in his old bedroom for the time being and James had been glued to his father’s bedside since they arrived six days ago.  
  
The morning of the Christmas party, hosted by their Potions Master, Lily was due to arrive and be introduced to James parents.   
  
‘Sirius, tell me more about her.’ Mrs Potter asked, stirring around a cake batter. She had been cooking furiously since the boys had returned home. Sirius had come to the conclusion it was a coping mechanism. It couldn’t have been easy seeing your husband deteriorating before your eyes.   
  
‘Ah, well.’ He stared at how viciously Mrs Potter was hand-stirring the mixture, delaying his reply, ‘Uh, Evans is great. She keeps James in line. I mean he’s been growing up slowly without her, but she definitely adds something good to him. Plus she’s not boring or annoying in the slightest. Exactly what you want out of a sister.’ He pulled his eyes off Mrs Potter’s literal beating of the batter and winked at her. She then place the cake mix down and motioned him over for a hug. Sirius obliged willingly, stroking her back caringly and hoping he and James would be enough to keep her above water for now.   
  
Mrs Potter drew back and dabbed at her eyes, ‘you’ll tell her and the boys to join us for Christmas dinner won’t you? I want it to be a big affair this year.’   
  
‘Yeah, of course. We should, uh, make it a lunch though. I don’t want to keep you both up with dishes and stuff, we should have lunch and relax in the evening with leftovers.’ Sirius proposed, knowing full well that the night of Christmas this year would be a full moon. If they could get James’s parents in bed early enough, they could go running with Remus and nothing would be compromised.  
  
‘Perfect idea, Sirius! I’ll start getting things prepared for a grand lunch.’ Mrs Potter nodded to herself, delighted by the idea and quickly returned to her cake. Sirius had to chuckle a little at her enthusiasm at the idea of more food. That was when James came into the kitchen in search of his mother.  
  
‘ _Muuuuum_. Could we get a tea for Dad, Muuuuum? He’s just woken up and I think he’d do well with a little sugar hit.’ James asked leaning up against the counter by Sirius and Mrs Potter nodded instantly, abandoning her cake and bustling around to get Mr Potter’s tea ready the way he liked it.   
  
‘How’s he going?’ Sirius asked as James launched himself up on the bench beside him. James dipped his finger into the cake batter and secured a decent amount in his mouth before replying.  
  
‘He’s comfortable. But, you know-' James shrugged. He, as well as his mother and Sirius, were all coming to terms with the fact that Mr Potter probably didn’t have much time left. ‘I’m just really glad he’ll get to meet Lily tonight.’ James grinned going for a second helping of cake batter before his hand was smacked away.  
  
‘Try it once more James Potter and you will feel an experienced witch’s wrath.’ Mrs Potter glared up at her son and he grinned down at her before sliding expertly off the bench whilst keeping eye contact.   
  
‘The tea’s ready then? Off I  _go_!’ James announced collecting up the tray and all but running from the room. Sirius let out a few low, resonating bark-laughs at his best friend after his exit and Mrs Potter joined in happily not long after. Once the cake was set in its tin and placed over the hot coal oven, Mrs Potter left to join James in her bedroom.   
  
Sirius sat alone in the kitchen, staring out the window for a moment. The Potter’s house was placed in a beautiful, untouched part of Tutshill not far from the bustling parts of the muggle world. Mr Potter had tended to the gardens around the home for years and so the lawns were immaculate and green. They had beautiful vines growing up the sides of their decidedly English stone house. There was even a little pond and well out the back where Sirius imagined James spent a lot of his childhood, soaring around on a broom.   
  
Everything about the Potter residence made Sirius happy. The white picket fences around its exterior. The small touches around the house like the family portraits with James pulling silly face between his mother and father. Or the reminders Mrs Potter would magically leave for James that would start chanting once the tea cups were empty that they should not be left there for her. The little gnomes in the backyard that were starting to realise Mr Potter wasn’t as active as he normally was in the garden duties. The enchanted feather duster that always made sure the house was free of dust. The warmth of the sun in the sitting room around two in the afternoon that everyone always took advantage of. This house was only full of fond memories, for every occupant. It was so bright in comparison to what Sirius grew up with.  
  
As the day went on, Mr Potter resurfaced from the bedroom with the help of his son and took up a comfortable seat in the sitting room in preparation for the 2pm sun. Everyone chatted happily as Mrs Potter continued to add more Christmas decoration to the room. It was already lighting up like a new years parade in Scotland as it was, but no one wanted to tell her otherwise. When Mrs Potter was out of earshot, Sirius and James filled Mr Potter in on the trouble they got up to around Hogwarts and he laughed happily in nostalgia.   
  
By the time night had rolled over Tutshill, the boys were dressed in their dress robes and Sirius’s hair was looking immaculate with little to no effort. The doorbell rang around five and James gave up on his own hair, running to get the door for Lily. Mrs Potter was jostling in her seat by Mr Potter and she stood up as James entered the room, followed by a very shy looking redhead.   
  
‘Mum, Dad, this is Lily.’ James was practically beaming as his introduced her. Mrs Potter raced over to them all but squealing.  
  
‘Oh! Hello, dear! I’ve heard so much about you!’ Mrs Potter immediately threw Lily into a hug and Lily laughed hugging her in return. Awkward first impression were unheard of in the Potter home. Lily was quickly pulled over to meet Mr Potter and in no time at all, everyone had tea and was sharing their stories of James. James was the only one that seemed less than impressed with this development.  
  
‘Oh, there was a time when James was little that he decided, he didn’t want to be a boy.’ Mrs Potter nodded taking a sip from her tea.  
  
‘Mum, stop! You always tell this one!’ James argued but Mrs Potter simply ignored him, directing her conversation at Lily beside her while Sirius and Mr Potter chuckled in the background.   
  
‘Yes, he spent a lot of time indoors with me in the first few years. He didn’t much like gardening with his father, so he decided he would like to be a girl. He started asking me to make him dresses instead of icky boy’s clothes and helped me with the cleaning and cooking. It was very entertaining for us both as parents. We only had the one child so we got to pretend we had a girl for a little while.’  
  
‘Mum!’ James groaned covering his face with his hands and sinking into the couch next to Lily as she laughed unabashedly.   
  
‘So I let him grow out his hair and braided it the best I could, it’s always been very unruly. And I dressed him in the sweetest little blue and pink dresses. Everyone around the neighbourhood was  _sure_  I’d had twins!’ Mrs Potter laughed happily, covering her mouth with her spare hand.   
  
‘James, did you want to try on some of my dress robes tonight? When I found you in my wardrobe that one time, I didn’t realise the context.’ Lily and Mrs Potter giggled together as James smacked his forehead into his open palm.   
  
‘I think we should probably get going guys.’ Sirius, who had already seen photographic moving evidence of James’s hidden shame, spoke up from his perch on the arm of Mr Potter’s arm chair coming to his best friend’s aid.  
  
‘Don’t wait up for us!’ James announced, leaping at the chance to get away, grabbing Lily’s hand and yanking her from the room.  
  
‘It was lovely to meet you both!’ Lily called out.  
  
‘We’ll see you soon dear! Don’t be a stranger!’ Mrs Potter replied. When they were out on the front porch James gave Lily a sweet kiss on the cheek despite her continued giggles at his expense. He just shook his head at her as Sirius came out rolling his eyes at them, albeit smiling at their infectious happiness.  
  
‘Sirius, did you ask anyone to accompany you to the party?’ Lily asked before they disapperated. Her giggles fell away instantaneously and were replaced with a very knowing look. Sirius didn’t like it.  
  
‘No. Why would I do that? It’s bad enough I’m being dragged along to this thing as it is. You think I want to take some boring girl and have her tell me how cool I am all night? No thanks.’ Sirius rolled his eyes at the thought and grabbed onto the two before him and quickly disapperated into Hogsmeade.  
  
‘Oh, well I just thought you might have asked Adams. I mean, it might have been nice to have her around this evening, too, don’t you think? She’s pretty fun once you get… more familiar… with her.’ Lily finished as they all stabilized and began walking towards Hogwarts. As she spoke the words Sirius suddenly felt very silly indeed. When James had told him it would have been wise to bring a girl, for some reason the only ones that popped into his head were the worst sorts of girls. The ones that would stare at him and smile and send him anonymous love letters on valentine’s day, or any other day for that matter. Why didn’t he think of asking Adams? She would have been going alone, too.  
  
He contemplated it, ‘yeah, but I’m not  _dating_  Adams.’ Sirius looked at Lily incredulously as they walked in a line, Lily’s beautiful white dress sweeping the floor in the middle of the boys.  
  
‘Oh! That’s right.’ Lily nodded, ‘You’re  _not_  dating Adams. Silly me. I suppose she’d be attending with some  _other_  boy. You know, one a little less frightened of  _labels._ ’ The look she provided Sirius with next was both chilling and fascinating.   
  
‘Yeah, I suppose she’s probably attending with a guy that wants to be seen in public with her.’ James added as he and Lily picked up and pace and walked ahead, chortling together. Sirius stopped dead for a moment while they whispered to each other. What just happened? Was this just a chance coincidence? Or were two of his best friends very much in on his secret? Wasn’t he being discreet? Sirius shook his head and took it at a bit of a run to catch up to them.  
  
James and Lily were of course delusional. Adams wouldn’t be attending with another guy. Clearly the two of them were- well- they were something. And that something meant no one else came between them. That much was obvious. And Adams was a social outcast. Who on earth would have coerced her into attending with them? No one, that’s who. Sirius would just find her once the party was underway and get her to join the gang and the night would be perfect. He had it all planned out. 

*

‘Is that- Is that Adams,  _with my **brother**_?’ Sirius nearly choked on his punch once they had made it into the castle and down to the dungeons only to find Aaliyah Adams walking into the party with none other than Regulus Black. They even had matching attire. Ali was in a beautiful silk, jade-green dress and Regulus had a matching green tie and pocket square.   
  
Lily spat out her punch when she saw them come in and laughed so loudly everyone in the surrounding area turned to look at them. She clung onto James to stabilize herself then looked up at Sirius.  
  
‘Oh they look so  _smart_  together. Don’t you agree, James?’ Her smile looked as if it couldn’t have been wiped off her face for any amount of gold.  
  
‘Dashing, to say the least. You see, there’s a man not afraid to dive head first into the world of dating. What a guy. Oh look! He’s even linking arms with her. That’s so sweet.’ James and Lily were both staring at Sirius, seemingly waiting for some kind of reaction. That’s when Sirius decided. They knew. The bastards had known this whole time! He wasn’t keeping any kind of secret! Sirius was suddenly furious.  
  
‘Excuse me for a moment.’ Sirius felt his eye twitching as he crossed the room to where Ali and Regulus had stopped to greet Slughorn.   
  
‘Oh hello chaps! You look absolutely spiffing! Dressed in green, perfect choice of colours.’ Slughorn seemed to be a little inebriated already as he jostled around, spilling the remaining contents of his cup on himself.   
  
‘Of course I would be sporting the most daring of colours for my favourite Professor.’ Ali buttered their potions master up and it didn’t look like he was at all against it. He grabbed her hand and shook it rigorously before turning to do the same to Regulus and that’s when Sirius took his chance. He reached out and pulled Ali away and when she realised who it was accosting her, her faked enthusiasm died and she fixed him with a bland look.   
  
‘Would you mind informing me what is going on here?’ Sirius requested, keeping his voice as calm as possible and having his eyes flicker over to his brother only once.  
  
‘Oh, I’m sorry, is there something wrong with this situation?’ Ali acted as if she was perfectly perplexed by his crisp tone. Sirius knew she was a little stunted in the socializing department, but not  _that_  stunted.  
  
‘I think you  _know_.’ He said through gritted teeth staring at Regulus, ‘you’ve just walked in with my  _brother_.’ Sirius spelt it out for her, just in case.  
  
‘Yes. I have.’ She smiled back at him, blinking once through the accompanied silence. ‘Is there something wrong with this scenario? I mean, after all, you  _are_  the one that said we shouldn’t, and I quote, “put a label on it”. Am I wrong? Isn’t this a perfectly acceptable situation for two people that aren’t in any kind of commitment to one another to partake in?’ As she finished her sentence, Regulus came over to join in on their shared words.  
  
‘Evening.’ Regulus gave Sirius a cool, but not exactly cold look. Sirius knew it was as close to a smile he would get from his estranged sibling.   
  
‘Hey, Reg.’ Sirius gave him a quaint smile back. ‘Look after her tonight. This one’s a bit short lived when it comes to parties. Make sure no one  _misbehaves_  around her.’ Although it was a little sarcastic, Sirius seemed genuine in his request. Regulus and Sirius just stared at one another for a moment before Regulus nodded a reply.   
  
‘Regulus, would you grab us some drinks, if that’s alright?’ Ali asked in a perfectly sweet voice that was lost on Sirius. He had never heard her speak so sweetly in his life. Regulus was gone almost instantly and Ali turned on Sirius so fast he jumped in alarm and held his hands up before his chest in defence.  
  
‘Sirius Black, don’t you dare ask him to look after me like it’s what you’ve been doing up until now!’ Ali looked fierce all of a sudden as she slammed a finger into his chest. It was hard for Sirius to concentrate because this was one of his favourite Ali looks. And accompanied with the way she had tamed her hair into a very elegant looking side plait, and the contrast of her darkened skin against the jade silk made his mouth go dry, ‘You could have been the one  _looking after me_  at this party you petty hoodlum. I don’t go around snogging boys in sacred places,  _like the library_  for just  _anyone_. If you don’t want labels, then you don’t want  _me_. End of story.’ Ali gave him one last chilling glare before pushing by him and making her way back over to Regulus.   
  
Sirius was shocked to say the least. He had no idea what had just happened. He had no idea she was so angry. Where had this come from? He was sure she was perfectly fine with what they were doing. She had  _said_  she was okay with it. Given the fact that she did seem a little gobsmacked when he first proposed the idea. …And then the smile she provided him with the following morning was definitely one Sirius knew to be a cover up smile. And the way she’d been acting the last time they’d been together was highly strange.   
  
…But she  _said_  she was okay with hiding their interactions from people? Sirius was confused again. They hadn’t spoken over the last week as he was so busy with the Potter’s. He’d actually been looking forward to the party, because it meant seeing Ali. This wasn’t how he had expected the night to go at all. She was  _very_  clearly upset. And upset with  _him_. Sirius smacked himself in the head. He should have realised sooner from her ridiculous actions the last day of term that something was wrong.  
  
Watching as Ali re-joined Regulus and he handed her a drink, Sirius was suddenly smacked with the realisation that apparently he seemed to have, once again, messed up. He groaned loudly in frustration with himself as he made his way back over to his friends, who were currently being terribly cute with one another. It wasn’t helping his current situation at all. Lily was pinching each side of James’s face, forcing him into a very peculiar looking smile as he frowned back at her. Lily was laughing despite herself, but she set James free when Sirius stopped beside them looking dejected.  
  
‘You really don’t have anyone to blame but yourself, “nolabels”.’ Lily announced as she picked up something from the tray a tiny house elf was manoeuvring between them. It smiled up at them all, its massive brown eyes seeming delighted it had done some kind of service.  
  
‘How much do you know?’ Sirius asked, watching as James inspected the tray and grabbed a handful much to the elf’s elation.    
  
Lily snorted a knowing laugh, ‘everything.’ James nodded beside her, shoving at least two of the finger foods down his throat, causing pastry to litter the front of his navy blue robes. Sirius groaned again.  
  
Lily bit into an orderve, ‘it’s okay Love-Pup. We can fix this.’ She swallowed her food and pet his head affectionately. Sirius disregarded why she would have been in on this particular nickname in the name of setting things right with Ali. ‘First off, tell me what you were thinking when the girl you clearly have feelings for and had been snogging for days, asked you to define your relationship and you thought it would be a good idea to propose “let’s not put a label on it.”’ Lily was suddenly giving him the same look Ali just had moments ago. “Let’s not put a label on it” was quite clearly a sentence never to utter around females. Is this what females did? Did they discuss  _everything_  with each other?  
  
Sirius panicked, ‘I don’t know. I don’t… I don’t  _want_  a girlfriend.’ He shrugged. Lily promptly smacked him over the head with her side plate. ‘ _Ow_!’  
  
‘Wrong answer!’ Lily all but shouted at him. James was snorting he was laughing so hard behind Lily.   
  
‘Uhm, I’m afraid of commitment?’ Sirius tried again, rolling his eyes at the ridiculousness of this situation. He received yet another plate to the temple and cried out in pain.  
  
‘Fuck, Lily!’ She smacked him again.  
  
‘Okay! Just let me think! I don’t want a bloody girlfriend tying me down I-' Lily’s plate met his temple once more and James snorted so hard he began to choke on the mini quiche he had been eating. Lily quickly smacked James’s back and he composed himself as Sirius rubbed his head trying to mediate the throbbing pain now coursing through his brain. Lily turned back to him with the plate raised for attack.  
  
‘I’m not good at this relationship stuff, okay!’ Sirius blurted out as Lily paused in her plate-strike. It hovered just far enough away that Sirius continued in reaction fear, ‘I  _do_  like her.’ He justified, ‘She’s different. She’s not like the other girls here that pine over me and chase me around. She makes me laugh and she likes her own time and she’s never a bother. But I’m… scared, okay?’ Sirius look particularly pained in admitting this, ‘Because the only substantial woman I’ve ever had in my life chased me out of my home with dinnerware and told me never to return because I was a monumental  _fuck up_  in her eyes. And I don’t want to fuck it up with her.’ Sirius sighed as he raised his head from where he was speaking to the floor.  
  
James was no longer choking, laughing or eating. He looked somewhat touched by the words he’d just heard and almost protective as he had placed a hand on Lily’s shoulder as if to stop her from advancing on Sirius. But it was nothing compared to the look Lily was wearing. She had since removed the plate from Sirius’s vicinity and was hugging it to her chest, staring at Sirius and biting her bottom lip. Sirius decided it was probably safe to continue.   
  
‘Listen, I feel like if I get into a full-blown, legitimate relationship, if that’s even what she wants, I’d fuck it up. You know? I mean, I know how to turn on the charm, but I’ve never dated a girl before. What do you even  _do_?’ Sirius looked on as his two friends seemed lost for words. Sirius was never one to open up to many people, but James Potter was his brother, he could tell James anything. And even though they hadn’t been together long, Lily was fast becoming someone very important to Sirius also, and he knew he could speak his heart to the two of them in confidence and not have it backfire.  
  
Suddenly the plate came down on Sirius’s head once more and he yelped in pain, ‘what was that for?!’  
  
‘You actual moron. Go and tell her that this instant! You do realise, that socially handicapped or not, every girl wants to hear  _that_  from the boy they like. Not “let’s not put a label on it”. How confused do you think she is? She barely knows enough about her own sex, let alone the opposite sex. And you’re playing mind games with her? She thinks you don’t like her, or that you don’t want to be seen with her. So fix it! Fix it right now!’ Lily demanded.  
  
‘I can’t fix it  _now_.’ Sirius retorted grabbing the plate off her and motioning a house elf over with more mini quiches. ‘She’s here with Regulus. I’m not ruining that for her. Let them have tonight at least. I’ll bombard her another time with all this emotional crap.’ Sirius groaned knowing what he just admitted could not have been taken back.   
  
He felt James grab him and pull him into a hug, ‘welcome, brother, to loving impossible women.’ James just nodded to the side of him, as they looked at Lily. Lily reached out and flicked them both on the nose before making her way off to greet more students and professors as Head Girl.  
  
As the night progressed, Sirius found himself alone a lot. Slughorn’s parties were never  _that_  entertaining. On the odd occasion a teacher would get themselves drunk and that provided excellent entertainment, but tonight Sirius was much too focused on a certain prefect to be spiking the punch or keeping tabs on the professors. Sirius watched Ali as she stood out of the way of most people, chatting to Regulus. For the most part, they seemed to be quite happy together. Regulus had always been a quiet kid, a bit of a recluse in comparison to Sirius. So it made sense that when two quiet people paired up, they would get along.   
  
The strange thing though, was although he was watching two people he cared very deeply for seemingly having a good time, it didn’t make him in the slightest bit happy. In fact, more often than not he had to stop the glare that kept returning to his face. He quietly sat at a table, alone, staring at them. From time to time, James or Lily would return to chat for a while. And of course there was the odd girl that dared to confront him and try to strike up a conversation or ask for a dance.   
  
Sirius wasn’t very much in the mood to be charming and so he kept his replies blunt. Most of them consisted of ‘no, thank you.’ But when a particularly nasty Slytherin sixth year he knew to have egged on rumours about Ali dating  _and sleeping_  with Dirk Cresswell, he mixed up his replies with a ‘bite me.’ He allowed himself to chuckle as she stormed off muttering.   
  
It wasn’t until ten in the evening, when the party was in full swing that something highly unusual happened. Suddenly all the torches in the vicinity went out and the upbeat jazz tunes went suddenly dead like a bad act being yanked from a stage. The whole party found themselves in complete darkness and eerie silence. Sirius jumped up into action instantly and used the light from his wand end to locate James.   
  
‘What’s happening?’ Sirius asked as he found James and Lily together with a few of the well celebrated guests Slughorn usually had at his parties, one Sirius knew to be the current manager of the Tutshill Tornadoes quidditch team, so it really wasn’t a wonder that James was near-by. James just shook his head and they all looked around. A few of the fairies Slughorn usually decorated the party with were providing dim lights around the room.   
  
‘If everyone could please  _not panic_! We have everything under control!’ Slughorn’s voice boomed over the now escalating, frightened chatter.  
  
But the next voice to speak, certainly was not Slughorn. Or any of their professors for that matter. The shrilling tone and the way it seemed to invade everyone’s ears so fully made the hairs on Sirius’s neck stand up.   
  
‘Students and friends alike. I come to you tonight with a message.’ Sirius looked up to find James hugging Lily closely to him and Lily frozen within his grasp. He suddenly had the urge to find Ali. ‘My message is this. I am not what your ministry is making me out to be. I am a just and righteous leader to all those under my command. If you join my forces, I will give you all of your deepest desires, there is near nothing I cannot accomplish. You will stand among the brightest of your age and you and your families will be protected from this raging war.   
  
‘I offer you asylum, in exchange for your allegiance. I extend a personal invitation to join my forces to the Head Boy and Girl of Hogwarts tonight. Your addition to my followers is something I deeply desire. If it is your wish to turn yourselves over to the fight for magical kind, you need only think it. And if you are of those that would rather die for a cause as absurd as fighting against your own class, you need not leave here tonight. Those of you who wish to ignore my most humble offer, I leave you with only this.’ And suddenly the voice was gone from their heads and the rooms torches lit up once more with an overwhelming green flame.   
  
Suddenly in every space of the room there was a cloaked figure, donned with a horrible mask and they wasted no time in spreading chaos. Suddenly china was smashing and people were dashing in every which direction to leave the dungeon room. Screams came from every direction, making it hard to concentrate. Sirius’s eyes were darting all over the room in a hope to find the one he was looking for. Suddenly he saw the green dress and raced over against better judgement to get to her.   
  
‘Ali!’ Sirius called out and grabbed her just as she landed a stunning spell on one of the hooded figures. It dropped to the floor instantly as she turned to Sirius ready to attack. When she realised who it was she suddenly threw her arms around him and caught him completely off-guard.  
  
‘We have to get out of here!’ She drew him at arm’s length, scanning him with her eyes, then grabbed him by the arm and started running for the exit. ‘We have to get to my parents!’  
  
‘How do you know defensive magic like that? They haven’t taught stunning spells to students. Wait- your parents? What are your parents going to do?’ Sirius questioned as he was dragged out of the room very much against his will. He wanted to stay and fight! Especially now that he knew Ali seemed to be capable of holding her own.  
  
‘My parents are part of the secret society fighting against You-Know-Who! Dumbledore’s society. They’ll know exactly what to do, you can apparate can’t you?’ She asked as they ran up, out of the dungeons and burst out of the doors with the crowds. Just as they made it out, they saw the doors of Hogwarts being barricaded with a shield charm.  
  
‘Well, of course. But where’s Regulus?’ Sirius asked suddenly remembering his little brother.  
  
‘I don’t know, he disappeared when the lights went out, hurry! We have to get to them immediately!’ Sirius had never run so fast in his life. They made it to the gates of Hogwarts in record time and as soon as they stopped Ali clung to him trying to catch her breath.  
  
‘Ottery… St Catchpole… It’s in Devon!’ She managed and within seconds they were standing in her little town. She grabbed a hold of him and ran down the street and up to her new home’s front door and burst through without hesitation.   
  
‘Dad! Dad come quickly! Quickly! It’s Order business!’ Ali screamed and within seconds her father was at the door beside them looking at Sirius as if he had two heads. ‘Not  _him_  Dad, at the school! Death eaters!’  
  
Christian suddenly straightened up and whistled. An eagle owl flew over from the kitchen to him and he conjured a quill and parchment out of thin air, scrawling something unintelligible and sending the eagle owl off so fast Sirius felt a little out of breath just watching it.   
  
‘No time for introductions!’ Christian announced grabbing hold of them ‘Kani! Urgent Order business! You’ll have to take Tucker to my parents!’ He announced and then they were gone. They reappeared at the edge of the gates and they raced in passed all the screaming witches and wizards scrambling to get out. As they got closer and closer to the castle suddenly Ali screamed.  
  
‘Ali, what is it?’ Christian turned to her and Sirius grabbed her hand. She raised her free hand into the air and they followed it up, above the castle. And there, glistening in the moon-light, was the dark mark. The snake twisting and winding through the skull and shrilling laughter was heard in the background over the strangled screams coming from within the barricaded castle doors.   
  
‘You two  **wait here**!’ Christian demanded and then raced off towards the castle. Sirius looked down at Ali, his hand still in her own and he was so very torn. Did he wait or did he charge the castle like he knew was right? There was only a slight pause before Ali spoke up.  
  
‘Like hell.’ Were the only words she said before squeezing Sirius’s hand harder and racing in after her father. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you all know, Lily and James thrice defied Voldemort, consider this their first strike.


	50. Sirius meets the Adams

Sirius could tell that Ali was just as torn with the current situation as he was. As the two of them stood together, just outside the castle, Ali was met with a problem. Did she directly disobey her father? Was that the right thing to do? Sirius could see her weighing out her options in her head. They had to find James and Lily. Sirius wouldn’t leave them to fend for themselves. But he couldn’t leave Ali behind to wait in the darkness. He was just as torn as she was.  
  
That’s when Ali quickly glanced to her side, seeming eager to find out what Sirius’s take on this was. It didn’t take her more than a few seconds to secure her hand tighter in his own with her decision being made.   
  
‘Like hell.’ She announced and dashed in beyond the freshly destroyed shield charm dragging Sirius behind herself. Sirius was shocked. Aaliyah Adams, rule abiding queen of Hogwarts, was ignoring a direct command. He suddenly couldn’t help smiling at her like some kind of revelation had hit him just now.  
  
Ali glanced back at him, ‘stop smiling like a moron and pay attention, Black! I’ll be rightly peeved if you get yourself killed!’ She smacked him and ran ahead. But he was hot on her trail within moments.  
  
‘Ali! Oh thank goodness you’re alright!’ Sirius watched as Lily’s arms closed around Ali once they had descended the first set of stairs and were into the lower levels of Hogwarts.  
  
‘What’s going on? What’s happening?’ Ali asked, trying to look ahead to see if her father was okay.  
  
‘Some wizard has just stormed in and knocked all the death eaters for six. They gathered a few, but I don’t even know how they got in Ali! Hogwarts is supposed to be impenetrable!’ Lily looked severely worried. As she should have been. Every student at Hogwarts was reminded daily of the struggles going on beyond their walls, but Hogwarts was the last untouched area. Or it used to be.  
  
Then Ali reacted as something came to her, ‘they weren’t death eaters!’  
  
‘Are you alright? They most certainly were. I’ve read loads of reports about them.’ James blinked at her, ‘who was that lad just now, he knew some serious magic!’  
  
‘My father.’ Ali seemed to swell with pride, but it was fleeting, ‘and you aren’t paying attention. They weren’t death eaters,  _yet_. The one I hit with the stunning spell, he didn’t seem to be overly frightening. He was almost clumsy. This must have been some kind of initiation for them. You-know-who knows he can’t get in here. But he knew only the best would be at Slughorn’s, when better to host a private invitation to sway the younger generation?’ Ali explained.  
  
‘Not to mention it’s  _filled_  with Slytherin’s.’ Sirius came up behind her, placing a comforting hand on her lower back. ‘She’s right. But we should go and join your father, make sure he’s okay.’ Sirius was itching to be a part of the fight. As soon as he’d mentioned it, the four of them ran into the dungeon office to find an out of breath Slughorn moping sweat from his brow.  
  
‘Oh a terrible mess this has been Ali, dreadful. Very smart thinking to collect your father! Couldn’t have apprehended them all without him!’ Slughorn nodded joyfully like he was awarding her his most prized possession by doing so.   
  
‘Where’s Dad?’ Ali asked looking around the destroyed room. Fires were blazing on every part of furniture, nothing was in the place it had been at the start of the night. A group of excited warlocks were gathered in the corner, muttering about politics. House elves were tending to those with minor wounds up against the walls, and towards the middle, where the fairies were now circling around a candle-lit chandelier, were a crowd of six figures in bonds.   
  
Ali and Sirius rushed over, feeling Lily and James not far behind them.   
  
‘Dad!’ Ali grabbed onto her father’s sleeve, something akin to a childhood remnant, and he whipped around to smile down at her.  
  
‘Nothing to fear Ali-bear. Just a group of misguided children it would seem.’ Ali’s father turned to glare down at the group. Barty Crouch Jr was among them, not to mention Severus Snape and his usual crowd of Mulciber, Wilkes, Avery and Rabastan.  Sirius felt his heart lift when he didn’t see Regulus among them. He was sure he had darted off to join his house mates in the terrible acts they were committing.   
  
‘Oh Severus. How  _could_ you?’ Lily words sounded so pain stricken it wasn’t a wonder James instantly placed his arms around her. She turned into his chest, disgusted with the sight before her.  
  
‘Get her out of here. Don’t give them the satisfaction of seeing her upset.’ Sirius whispered to James and he agreed and led Lily from the scene, back over to Slughorn and the rest of the professors.   
  
‘What should we do with them Dad?’ Ali asked, seemingly quite unperturbed by the sight before her. Prefect Adams was on the scene.  
  
‘ _You_  young lady, are going to march yourself off premises, and take this young boy home to meet your mother. Don’t think you’ve fooled me saying you were good to find your own way to the party and just disappearing out the front door.’ Christian stared down at her, ‘I can deal with this. This is, after all, my department at the Ministry now. And I daresay Dumbledore will want a word in it before I start filling out reports. This one seems to be adamant that they have all been imperiused.’ He sighed nodding to Barty Jr. ‘I really don’t want to be the one bringing this to Barty.’ Christian shook his head. This would certainly be a long night for him with such accusations.   
  
‘But  _Dad_.’  
  
‘Uh-uh! Get going young lady!’ Christian warned and Ali made a sour face towards him.  
  
‘I’ll just, uh, escort her home then, shall I?’ Sirius was trying his best not to laugh at the scene unfolding before him.  
  
‘Don’t think I’m done with you either.’ Christian turned on Sirius, ‘taking my daughter out without even meeting me first. Bad manners young man. You’ll do well to stay back until I’ve arrived home. Now scoot. You watch her with your life, or you’ll pay with your own.’ Sirius met his words with a singular nod and immediately obeyed. Even if it was Regulus at fault, he was going to step up and take the blame if it meant him being allowed to escort Ali to safety, which he was  _certain_  would be her home. After meeting her father, surely her mother was of the same calibre?   
  
‘Where the bloody hell did your brother go?’ Ali asked, searching the confines of the room with her eyes as Sirius directed her over to James and Lily.  
  
‘Guys, we need to vacate. Adams senior has a  _temper_.’ Sirius nodded his head in Ali’s father’s general direction where he was taking down the boy’s names and massaging his temples over the situation. Ali chuckled.  
  
‘Please. My father is a kitten. It’s my mother you need to watch out for.’ And with that sentence, Sirius’s worst fears were confirmed.   
  
‘We have to stay, we’re Heads of the school after all. Damage control is part of our mandate and I reckon once the Headmaster gets in, we’ll be needed for statements. But you two go on ahead.’ James explained.  
  
‘Oh yeah, get Ali home would you Sirius? I mean, there’s  _loads_  you have to tell her. Remember? What was that about her being-‘  
  
‘ **Shut** \- your… beautiful face.’ Sirius silenced Lily as fast as he could but simmered out rather quickly after his initial outburst. ‘Come on squirt. Let’s get you home.’ Sirius rolled his eyes at the gestures both Lily and James were making as he turned Ali away. They were laughing despite the scene around them which only furthered to prove they were children of war. Funnily enough, when danger surrounded children from such a young age, it tended to desensitize them, and the result was a fast recovery from awful events such as these.   
  
As Sirius walked Ali up and out of the dungeons, and followed her from the school, they turned to look up at the dark mark hovering overhead. Thankfully there had been no casualties that night, clearly one of the students had wanted some kind of practice. It was lucky though, because had there been any fully-fledged death eaters in the halls of Hogwarts tonight, surely someone would have lost their lives. Voldemort was never one for niceties and surely a direct invitation to both Lily and James would have been met with death, had they denied him in person. Sirius was suddenly so thankful to be in a school protected by the greatest wizard of their time. Dumbledore’s influence was surely why his friends were still among the living.  
  
That direct invitation to his friends however, chilled him to his core. Were they in danger? Everyone knew that head boy and head girl was a very high honour to receive, and Voldemort wasn’t wrong in assuming their addition to his ranks would have been detrimental to Dumbledore. Dumbledore and his  _secret society_?  
  
‘Wait,  _Adams!_ ’ Sirius shouted remembering what she had said to him about her father and his being a part of said society.  
  
‘What! Are you alright? You weren’t hurt were you?’ Ali asked as they came to the school gates. Strangely they seemed to have been walking along in silence for some time without him realising. He was so incredibly comfortable with this girl, time past them by without him being aware of it. Surely that meant something?  
  
‘Your fa-‘ Sirius started, looking down into her pale green eyes. As he registered her, his mind went blank. He was suddenly so overwhelmed with happiness to be standing here with her, every inch of her body being unharmed, he felt his eyes stinging.  
  
‘Are you  _crying_?’ Ali sounded worried. Without much notice he then felt her arms close around him stiffly, like she was hoping above hope this was the correct way to act in this situation. The girl never failed to make him laugh. He obliged willingly and pulled her head into his shoulder, burying his face in her hair which had somehow gotten loose of its braid in the mayhem. ‘It’s okay Black, don’t worry. We’ll find him. You don’t have to worry.’ Ali spoke, rubbing his back in a robotic manner. ‘Your brother probably just got out with the others.’  
  
Sirius was dumbstruck. Was she  _really_  this slow? He pulled her back at arm’s length and stared at her. Oh yes, she certainly was. ‘I don’t care about my idiot brother you halfwit. His mistakes are his own to make, he knows I’ll always be there for him when he needs me. It’s  _you_ I was worried about.’ As he admitted what felt like the most profound affirmation, Ali just seemed to blink back at him in confusion. She furrowed her dark brows together and let her head dip to one side making her a picture of innocence.  
  
Suddenly Sirius couldn’t take it anymore and claimed Ali’s lips as he had wanted to since the beginning of the night. She didn’t do much in the way of protesting and they backed out of the gateway and into the foliage to the side of the winged-boar, statue-encumbered pillars. Sirius trapped Ali against a tree kissing every part of her he could reach. He had never needed to kiss anyone so badly in his life, it was as if his very soul depended on it. He kissed her so deeply he almost forgot to breath and suddenly they slipped from their position against the tree and came crashing down into the bushes below.   
  
‘Ow! Sirius you idiot!’ Ali berated him as he positioned himself atop her and looked downward in fear.  
  
‘I’m so sorry, are you hurt? Are you okay?’ He questioned scouring her body with his eyes to detect any hint of bleeding or injury. Ali started to laugh.  
  
‘I’m fine. I just fell on a branch.’ She complained, reaching behind her to remove the tricky twig. Sirius found himself once again so washed over with relief he wasn’t sure he was allowed to feel this happy after the things that had happened tonight. His lips descended down on hers once more and to feel the soft, tenderness against him made the blood pump rapidly through his body.   
  
He sat above her, legs to either side of her body, leaning down to reach her lips with his left hand stabilizing him above her. Ali had herself propped up on her elbows to meet him better. It wasn’t long before things started to escalate as Sirius’s hands began to wander. Ali’s dress had managed to find its way up to her hip level and Sirius was looking down at her as if she were the only thing that could save him for eternal damnation. Ali was returning the look with the same ferocity. And then suddenly her face went blank. While they paused she was graced with a moment for her senses to return to her.  
  
‘ **No**.’ She breathed, deadpan, almost launching Sirius off her when she smashed her palms into his chest. She sat up in the mess of broken bushes and twigs and glared over at him where he was now pushing himself up out of the cold, frosty, fallen leaves. ‘You do  _not_  get to lay hands on  _this_  body, without at least admitting you have feelings for me. Mister “no Labels”.’  
  
For a moment Sirius had been monumentally worried that perhaps he had just been pressuring the girl into something she hadn’t wanted, and was washed over with a sense of thankfulness that they seemed to be on the same wavelength.  
  
‘Ali,’ he started. He had used her first name times in the past, certainly, but for some reason, this time just felt different, ‘Ali I’m sorry. I never meant to make you feel unwanted, or that I was ashamed of you.’ Sirius straightened himself up, resting his hands on his knees and looking over at her. ‘Despite knowing my way around  _words_  that seem to bring females joy, I’m actually pretty rubbish at the business of knowing what  _really_  brings a female joy. I had no clue you were upset. You really should have just spoken up.’ Sirius nodded to her as Ali listened, pulling her dress back down beyond her knees.   
  
‘I kind of figured that was it. But Lily had all these plans.’ Ali rolled her eyes and sighed.   
  
‘I knew you going with Regulus was her idea!’ Sirius snapped his fingers, putting two and two together.  
  
‘No, that was me.’ Ali admitted unabashed, ‘I will destroy you from the inside out if you toy with my emotions, Black. Do not think me incapable. I may not have extensive experience with small talk, but I seem to know what makes  _you_  tick.’ Ali said this with the least amount of emotion a human was known to show expressed on her face and that truly petrified Sirius. This was one girl not to screw with. But strangely enough, that only made him edge closer to her.  
  
‘Well, from now on, could we maybe be honest with each other? And talk to each other about our problems before going to our friends?’ Sirius asked, taking her hand in his. She watched him do this, then looked up at him with a very casual, relaxed look about her.  
  
‘Then make me your girlfriend, or stop making out with me behind closed doors.’ Ali gave him the ultimatum but Sirius was already sure of what he wanted.  
  
‘So would you prefer me to kiss you in the grand hall at lunch, or?’ Sirius asked, placing a kiss to her cheek as she scrunched up her nose, not unlike a tiny angry bunny.  
  
‘Ew, no. Public displays of affection make me queasy. Just tell people you’re dating me you sentimental weirdo.’ Ali shook her head at him as if he were insane. Sirius just laughed at her, helping her to her feet and pulling leaves from her hair.  
  
‘Done. So very done. If it’s alright with you though, I’d rather not sing and dance in front of the entire cohort through dinner to prove my affections.’  
  
‘I would  _kill_  you if you did that to me.’ Ali warned.  
  
‘Perfect.’ Sirius laughed and then claimed her lips once more. They stood pressed into one another for quite some time, and it was only when Sirius trapped Ali’s lower lip between his teeth and her nails dug into his back that they decided to break apart for air.  
  
Ali looked a little dazed at the loss of contact as she tried to gain back her coherence, ‘well, maybe I’m not  _completely_  opposed to public displays.’ She thought aloud, staring up into his eyes quite out of breath, and pink lipped.   
  
Sirius laughed before hugging her tightly and sighing in relief, kissing the top of her head. ‘Uh, so. Do you think your father was being serious in there?’ Sirius didn’t know which part would be harder, confronting his newly named girlfriend with the wrongs he had made against her, or meeting her perfectly petrifying parents for the first time in an enclosed space.   
  
Considering how well the former conversation had just panned out, he was definitely in for some kind of trouble at the Adams residence. Nothing ever went so right for him.  
  
‘Your mother’s not  _really_  that scary is she?’ Sirius asked, securing his girlfriend’s hand tightly in his own. Girlfriend. It was a very foreign word to him. But even saying it over in his head, looking down towards the curls and lightly sun kissed skin before him, he found it fit her very well.   
  
‘Try not to mention her height.’ The look that flashed onto Ali’s face as she gave him this advice made Sirius fretful. A small shiver coursed up through his body and he disapperated them from outside the school grounds, apparating just outside her front door this time.   
  
‘I mean, you’re quite good looking.’ Ali turned to him, having to stand on her tip toes to pull a few leaves from his own hair. ‘I think.’ Ali took a step back and looked Sirius up and down, pouting in a strange kind of approval. Sirius suddenly felt like a piece of meat in a butcher’s window.  
  
‘You think?  _You think_?’ Sirius had never been so disrespected in his whole life.   
  
‘Attractiveness is  _subjective_  Sirius! I read it in a book.’ She recited matter-of-factly and crossed her arms over her chest like, clearly an excerpt from a book ended this argument. Sirius just stared at her for a moment wondering if she was actually serious or if she was just being the little brat he knew was buried deep under the perfect student she played for their professors.   
  
‘Does that mean  _you_  find me attractive at least?’ Sirius quirked a brow and was rewarded with the most cunning smile he had even seen on Ali’s face, before they were suddenly interrupted.  
  
‘Who’s this!?’ Both Sirius and Ali jumped around as the Adam’s front door smashed open, and there in the door way stood a tiny boy no older than five. Sirius surveyed him. He looked barely anything like Ali. His skin was a very dark brown, and his jet black hair came out of every which angle on his head in tight, spiral curls. His eyes were darting from Ali, back to Sirius, and his tiny mouth was a thin line as he awaited a reply.   
  
‘Here’s the real test,’ Ali whispered out of the side of her mouth to Sirius as they stood, being appraised by the tiny youth before them, ‘because if my brother doesn’t like you, I’m sorry but you’re out.’ She finished and stepped ahead, scooping her brother into her arms and securing him on her hip.  
  
‘This is Sirius, Tucker. He’s a friend of mine.’ Ali explained as Tucker clung to her, watching Sirius. It was then that he found their family resemblance because the blasé, judgemental look he was receiving was all too familiar to him. Then little Tucker turned to look up at his sister.  
  
‘Well, that’s a  _blatant_  lie.’ Sirius was shocked to hear such advanced vocabulary from such a tiny human. He was impressed. ‘You don’t  _have_ friends, nerd. You have books. I know.’ Tucker stated very matter-of-factly and Ali’s face fell forward in exasperation.   
  
Sirius couldn’t help how loudly he laughed next. The entire street was filled with loud, bark-like laughs and Ali’s groans of disapproval.  
  
‘You’re both  _pests_. Why are all the men around me  _pests_?’ Ali put Tucker down and pointed a finger inside, ‘get  _in_. Both of you!’ She demanded. Tucker ran in giggling, and Sirius obliged her wanting to hear more from her devious little brother.   
  
Sirius stepped over the threshold and back into the house they had been in not an hour prior. This time he had a moment to register his surroundings. The house was quaint and clean, but it didn’t feel entirely lived in. Not like the Potter’s home. Tucker came to stand by Sirius and looked up at him. He seemed to be deciding something, and so Sirius stood perfectly still while Ali shut the door behind them.  
  
Tucker suddenly nodded, ‘yeah, I like him. He’s pretty.’ He concluded in his high, squeaky voice and nodded over to Ali.  
  
‘Looks aren’t everything Tucker, what have I told you?’ Ali shook her head but Tucker just sighed in exasperation with his sister’s seemingly ridiculous notion.  
  
‘Beauty is  _everything_ , nerd.’ And with those words, he flicked around and sauntered off, out of the entrance hall and into the room directly ahead. Sirius tried desperately to hold his laughter in while Ali just stared at the place Tucker had disappeared from, quite deadpanned.   
  
‘Aaliyah? Aaliyah is that you?’ Their attention was drawn to the staircase to their left. Suddenly, what Sirius supposed was Ali’s mother, descended the stairs at an alarming rate. He’d seen her from a distance when he’d taken fleeting looks at Ali on the platform at the end of the school years, but he’d never seen her up close.  
  
She was  _tiny_. Tiny was an understatement. She barely met Sirius’s chest when she got to the bottom and stood between Ali and himself. She was stunning, though, however short she may have been. Her long, curly black hair fell in tight ringlets all the way down her back and her dark skin was practically glowing in the candlelit entrance. Her most entrancing feature however was her eyes, in contrast to her dark skin. They were almost the exact shade of green that Ali’s were. She was the most exotic looking woman Sirius had ever seen.  
  
‘What’s going on? Where is your father? Is he okay? All I get is a darn call up the stairs about the Order! He could be dead for all I know, the bloody moron!’ She seemed almost beside herself and she had a scrunched up letter in her hand and ink splayed over her, what looked to be, uniform. ‘I had to get Wendy to cover my shift!’  
  
‘It’s okay Mum, don’t worry. It was just some stupid kids at school trying to- well- actually.’ Ali seemed to be weighing up her options about something. She looked a little concerned, and that’s when Ali’s mother turned to Sirius fully.  
  
‘And who are you?’ She asked blinking up at him. Sirius swallowed.   
  
‘This- this is Sirius Black, Mum. He, uh, took me to the party tonight.’ Ali lied looking between them.  
  
‘ _Black_? As in son of Orion and Walburga Black?  _That_  Black?’ Sirius felt immediately unhinged. How did she know his parents? This was not what he wanted his first impression to be. The son of the blood purists. Surely anyone that knew his parents knew their personal stands against anything non-magical. But he couldn’t very well deny it. Black wasn’t the most common of names in the wizarding community anymore. They were slowly dwindling in numbers.  
  
Sirius took a strangled breath and nodded down at the tiny, incredibly menacing woman. For only being in her presence for the shortest amount of time told him she was not to be messed with.  
  
‘What house are you in, Black?’ She narrowed her eyes at him, placing her hands on her hips. Sirius looked to Aaliyah who was standing behind her, very much at a loss for what to do to help.  
  
‘Uh, G-Gryffindor, Mrs Adams.’ Sirius fumbled. There was a dead silence around the room for what felt like  _forever_. Then suddenly, as if she were a flower blooming from the ashes of a fire, Aaliyah’s mother smiled so widely that Sirius felt even more anxious. But the laughter that came after made him relax somewhat.  
  
‘I bet your foul parents  _hated_  that!’ She continued laughing, ‘Kanika Adams, lovely to meet you Sirius.’ She held out a hand for him to shake and he shook it, laughing unnervingly. He wasn’t sure if this was some kind of trick. She was so small and scary, Ali was right.   
  
‘I went to school with your parents. I was in the same year as your mother.  _Horrible_  woman. Sorry, but it’s true.’ Kanika nodded honestly, motioning for them to follow off to the room Tucker had disappeared to. Sirius now knew where Ali got all her overwhelming tact from.  
  
‘No, she really is.’ Sirius agreed, following Ali and Kanika through to what turned out to be a sitting room. Tucker was lying on his stomach on a rug, before a nicely crackling fire. He looked up when they entered the room and winked at Sirius. This family was truly  _odd_  to say the least. Sirius found himself smiling bemusedly as he took a seat on the couch, Ali taking up the space beside him.  
  
‘So your father’s okay? What a piece of dragon-dung. Don’t repeat that, Tucker, honey.’ She looked down to her son.  
  
‘Dad’s a dragon dung, got it.’ He continued on scribbling with colour changing ink on a large bit of parchment.  
  
‘He could have bloody told me to my face where he was going.’ Kanika raged on, flicking her wand around and a teapot and cups flew into the sitting room from another door off to the side of the room.  
  
‘He was in a hurry, Mum. It was  _Order_  business!’ Ali argued in her father’s defence. As Sirius sat back he got the feeling Ali was quite attached to her father. Kanika argued on with her about it while she conjured up water and boiled it, all with her wand. Sirius was unaware Ali’s family was so- well- crazy. As Ali continued to argue with her mother, Tucker was humming on the floor, drawing. He seemed to be creating a very many different designs for dress robes for the cat. Sirius was at a loss. He felt a laugh threatening to come forth when he tuned back into the argument.  
  
‘Aaliyah Adams, you do not know everything just because you got twelve OWL’s. I’m smarter than you, don’t forget that.’ Kanika shot at her.  
  
‘You weren’t Head Girl,  _Mum_!’ Ali snuffed.  
  
‘And you won’t be either with that attitude you little imp. I’ll have a word to Albus about you yet!’ Kanika announced thrusting a cup of tea upon her and standing to walk over to Sirius.   
  
‘Mum, no!’  
  
‘You’re a bossy little know-it-all. Is she as much of a terror at school as she is at home?’ Kanika shook her head at her daughter, handing Sirius a cup of tea much less ferociously.   
  
‘Uh,’ Sirius looked at Ali and then back at Kanika, deciding it would be best to side with her dragon of a mother for now, and make it up to his newly appointed girlfriend later, ‘probably more so. I mean, she’s a prefect at school. And she takes it pretty liberally.’  
  
‘Don’t think the badge comes off just because she doesn’t wear it around the house. It’s a mental badge, Sirius. The badge of a teenager that knows  _everything_.’ And the look Kanika gave Sirius then was so alike to the look Ali usually gave him when he said something particularly sly in her presence, it was uncanny. Sirius was having quite some trouble keeping himself from laughing.   
  
He felt his tea ripped from him and then he was being pulled from the lounge and back out of the sitting room. ‘You’re so  _rude_ , Mum!’ Ali shouted as she led him back into the entrance hall and up the stairs. Once they got to the top, they turned a corner and went by two doors to either side of the hall before coming up to the last, and walking inside the room.   
  
Sirius looked around, and his need to laugh was far from extinguished. The walls were lined with famous old witches and wizards, who were all staring in disbelief at his appearance. The bed was covered in plush toys. There were more books than he could count and that’s when Ali froze up and turned to him.   
  
‘Don’t you dare laugh.’ She stared at him, horror etched on her face at what she had just done. Sirius’s lip started to produce blood from how hard he was biting it.   
  
‘Is-‘ he started, trying his best to keep calm, ‘-is that a poster of-‘ he took a dangerous breath, ‘-Falco Aesalon?’  
  
‘You know who he is?’ Ali’s face lit up and suddenly, after letting lose a small cough to cover himself, Sirius didn’t feel much like laughing at her.  
  
‘Yeah, of course, he was the first ever recorded animagus.’ Sirius stepped closer to her. But then he realised his reasoning behind knowing that titbit of information was most certainly lost on her. She didn’t seem fazed though, as she stared up at him.  
  
‘I’d love to be an animagus. I have no idea what I’d be, but wouldn’t that be amazing?’ The happiness on her face at the thought made Sirius smile.  
  
‘Yeah. It would be great.’ He was definitely going to have to tell the boys about this now that the cat was out of the bag.  
  
‘Sorry about my Mum. She’s a little crass.’ Ali rolled her eyes, leaving her animagus thoughts behind. Sirius wondered whether or not she would take kindly to finding out that she was a miniature version of her mother? Crassness very much included.  
  
‘I think she’s great.’ Sirius smiled, closing his arms around her. ‘I think your whole family are great.’ He continued as he felt her arms wrap around his waist and her forehead rest against his chest. They stayed like that for a little while, listening to each other’s breathing. They vaguely heard Kanika downstairs yelling at Tucker about something. It sounded quite similar to “stop terrorising the cat!” and Sirius felt Ali stifling a laugh into his chest.   
  
‘Aaliyah Adams!’ They both froze when they heard the front door crash open and Christian’s voice calling up the stairs.  
  
‘Ah, Ali. I fully intend on being a  _great_  boyfriend to you. But-‘  
  
‘Ali you get down here with that boy immediately!’ Christian’s footfalls could be heard making their way up the stairs.  
  
‘-but, tomorrow. From tomorrow onwards. I swear it.’ He couldn’t keep the laughter at bay any longer as it floated out with his words.  
  
‘Sirius, don’t you dare-‘ Sirius silenced her though with a kiss to her lips and a smile as he drew back.  
  
‘I’ll write to you!’ He nodded enthusiastically and then, before Ali could grab at him, he vanished with a faint pop.   
  
‘You coward!’ Ali was left alone, laughing in his absence, as her father reached her door ready to give her an inevitable lecture about boys. Something he had never had to do in the past.


	51. Ali's circle of friends

As they walked along, Ali stared down at her little brother in her arms. He smiled back at her with a devious look. He was taking a great deal of pleasure out of how much trouble his big sister had gotten into a week ago. And the fact that their father still seemed to be carrying on about it. Tucker got into trouble a lot with their parents, so even though he was only five going on six, he seemed to be soaking up every bit of the fact that Ali was currently not the golden child. He just grinned back across at Ali, showing off his baby teeth, as she strode through Diagon Alley. Their parents weren't far behind them, bickering.   
  
‘Stop it.’ Ali said, narrowing her eyes at his devious expression as they passed by a loitering hooded figure.  
  
‘Stop what?’ Tucker asked innocently as they moved along through the scarce handful of witches and wizards still braving the streets and towards the leaky cauldron.  
  
‘You’re such a brat.’ Ali shook her head at him, albeit smiling.  
  
‘And don’t you forget it.’ Tucker nodded, wiggling to get down. Ali placed him beside her and they waited together until their parents caught up.  
  
‘Oh you really need to conjure a bridge, Christian. It’s not like I told him to take her upstairs and undress her.’ Kanika was rolling her eyes at her husband as he levitated Ali’s trunk and Snowball behind them.  
  
‘Kani!’ Christian squawked and shot a look towards his daughter, ‘Don’t give her ideas.’ Christian glared over at Ali as he whispered this to his wife. Kanika and Aaliyah both just stared at him in the same, monotonous way while Tucker continued to grin, shifting his eyes back and forth between the two sides.  
  
‘Dad, you  _need_  to trust me. I can take care of myself!’ Aaliyah huffed before turning on her heel and pulling Tucker along to the brick entrance. They waited there for either Kanika or Christian to perform the magic needed to open the entrance for them.  
  
As Kanika tapped her wand to the specific bricks, having to reach on her tiptoes to tap the highest one, Tucker and Ali stifled a laugh. Usually Christian would have made some kind of mention of her lacking height. But he was much too involved with being a sook over his daughter’s inevitable leap into puberty. Not that Ali was protesting for more freedom or rights to her femininity, but she really thought her father was being a bit of a baby. Surely a bit of kissing wasn’t going to kill her?  
  
All through Christmas dinner, he was sulking about Ali being with Sirius. It was making Ali wish she’d never let it slip they were in fact dating now. But she didn’t like to keep secrets from her parents. Christian was apparently mad that Kanika allowed the two of them to go, unaccompanied, up to Ali’s bedroom. Ali’s grandmother boastfully proclaimed it was “about time she got a little action” and that only furthered to darken her father’s mood. She had to silence him more than once through their Boxing Day celebrations with Kanika’s side of the family. Ali wasn’t exactly sure she wanted Nay and Misha knowing about her being an item with Sirius just yet.   
  
They continued on through the solemn atmosphere of the leaky cauldron and made it out into the streets of Charing Cross road. Christian was lugging Ali’s trunk and Tucker was holding onto Snowball’s cat cage. They were en route to Kings Cross when Ali started to think about what kind of effect it would have on her, people finding out she had been snogging Sirius Black? The last time she kissed a boy, the results were horrible. She was still receiving a backlash from them. And with the way her father was behaving, you would think the coupling was the worst in the history of wizarding kind. Even she, herself, would have scoffed at such a pairing not a year prior. Would everyone react this way? Maybe she had been too hasty on the night of the Christmas party, telling Sirius she wanted them to “go public”.   
  
She felt Tucker grip her hand and she looked down at him. He was struggling with the cat cage, and so Ali reached down and relieved him of it much to his protests. He grumbled and muttered all the way into Kings Cross Station. Once they were through the barrier she bent down and took Snowball out of his cage and handed the lazy cat over to her pouting brother. His face lit up, as Snowball stared up at Ali quite fretful. Ali just giggled as their parents came in behind them with her trunk.  
  
‘Aaliyah, come here.’ Kanika accosted her pushing Christian away from them.   
  
‘Your father would like me to have a word with you before you go back to school and get yourself pregnant, as he puts it.’ She threw a fierce look his way, ‘and he’s too much of a child to give you said talk himself.’  
  
‘Mum, I do not need a talk about getting pregnant!’ Ali looked around at the students that were close enough to overhear them. Much to her dismay, Anna Cox and her parents were within throwing distance and Anna smiled at her glibly before turning away to laugh.  
  
‘Mum you’re so embarrassing!’ Ali whispered angrily to her as Kanika veered her away to an unoccupied corner. Christian and Tucker busied themselves with putting her things aboard the train whilst Tucker enquired into how Ali would be getting pregnant.  
  
‘I’m not embarrassing. Your father has a point, however ridiculous he’s being. You haven’t shown an interest in boys your entire life, and then you all of a sudden come home with one. It’s time we set a few ground rules.’  
  
‘I do not need ground rules! I’m old enough to take care of myself!’ Ali was getting quite frustrated now. She had been a perfect daughter. The only grief she ever gave her parents were the arguments she and her mother got into over the silliest of things. Like when she would enter her room without knocking. Or barging in and waking her up to ask her the most trivial or things. Could she watch Tucker, for example, because she was off to an early shift at St. Mungo’s and her father would be heading to work at eight. Honestly! Was it entirely necessary to wake her up to ask this? Of course she would watch her brother!  
  
‘Aaliyah don’t be ridiculous, you’re sixteen. You don’t know anything about taking care of yourself.’ Kanika stressed, rolling her eyes. These holidays seemed to be the worst to date of the escalating arguments between them. Ali’s eye caught sight of Sirius not far off with James and what Ali guessed was James’s mother, watching the exchange.  
  
‘Mum, leave it alone.’  
  
‘Ground rule one; keep your clothes on at all times in the presence of others.’  
  
‘Mum.’  
  
‘Ground rule two; if this coupling continues, however arduous it may be I want to have an audience with his parents.’  
  
‘Mum!’  
  
‘Ground rule three; if your grades fall due to, whatever this is, you are to cease from seeing him, immediately.’  
  
‘Mum! Shut it!’ Aaliyah could feel the eyes of at least twenty students on them as she endured the lecture. Couldn’t she have done this before they entered the platform? Why did parents always have the most inopportune timing? ‘You don’t have any idea what I’m like at school. You don’t have any idea what I’m like at  _all_! This is all pointless! You’re the- the worst mother!’ The moment the words left her mouth, she regretted it. Kanika’s face snapped initially to shock, but as she blinked the hurt was rather apparent and Ali felt horrible.   
  
But as she dared a glance around, she saw Anna Cox snickering at her. She huffed and straightened up as Christian and Tucker joined them.  
  
‘I’ll see you for Easter, very much not pregnant!’ She shot a glare at her mother and father for a brief moment. As she bent down to kiss Tucker he hugged her, still grinning. She then whipped around to leave the horrible situation behind. The embarrassment was almost overwhelming as she passed students whispering to one another, laughing behind their hands in her wake. To say she was sick of this type of treatment was an understatement. Once she was aboard the Hogwarts Express and plonking herself down at one of the booths in the first of the two prefect’s carriages, all of a sudden she felt a wave of guilt hit her.  
  
Even if her mother was being completely unreasonable, and quite frankly out of line, she felt her throat clamping up. How could she have said such a horrible thing? Kanika Adam’s was so very far from the worst mother. Not five minutes before her lecture was she standing up for her daughter against her father’s ridiculous accusations. She needed to apologise. But as she stood, the whistle of the train blew, signalling its limited moments before departure.  
  
‘Hey, you alright?’ She bumped into Remus in the door way followed by a familiar group. Remus stepped aside to let Lily and James through. Peter and Sirius hovered at the entrance, knowing neither had admittance to the carriage. The minute his face came into view Ali felt the need to step forward and bury herself in any part of Sirius she could reach, but she stopped herself.  
  
‘Uh, yeah. I’m fine.’ She lied. Why did she do that? She wasn’t even sure.  
  
‘We’ll just- uh- wait inside for you Al.’ From the humoured air to Remus’s voice, Ali almost thought he was laughing at her expense, also. But when Peter spoke next, she caught onto the reason for their bottled up laughter.  
  
‘Yeah, Romeo wanted some alone time.’ The moment the words left Peter’s mouth Lily and James started to laugh in the background. Even Remus was chuckling as he slid the carriage door shut and left them alone. Sirius smacked a closed fist down atop Peter’s head, but his face wasn’t overly upset.  
  
‘Sirius, don’t hit him. He’s a human being.’ Ali shoved Sirius slightly and looked down to Peter, where he was rubbing his head, to make sure he was alright. When Peter realised she was talking about him, he looked up to her a little taken aback.  
  
‘Oh, it’s okay. It didn’t hurt.’ He smiled up at her guardedly, while Sirius watched him casually out of the corner of his eye, ‘I’ll go find us a compartment. See you in a bit.’ Peter spoke to Sirius, then gave a last, fleeting smile to Ali and left the two alone.  
  
‘Don’t you think you’re all a little mean to Pettigrew?’ Ali turned to look up at Sirius, only to find his eyes fixed on her.  
  
‘The only people on this planet allowed to be mean to Wormtail, are Moony, Prongs and myself. And he knows that.’ Sirius gave her a tender smile and held out a hand before him. Ali suddenly looked around making sure they were alone, as her thoughts from earlier returned to her. They were standing in one of the open carriages at the front of the train that was usually occupied by Slytherin and a few of the more conceited students from the other houses. The carriages weren’t as packed to the brim as they usually were at the start of the school year, but surely some would be arriving shortly?  
  
As the train jerked suddenly, getting ready for departure, Ali lost her footing and not only grabbed onto Sirius’s hand, but fell against him in the process. Simultaneously the far carriage door opened and students began to flood in on the intimate exchange. There were a few drawn breaths and the students all seemed to freeze at what they were witnessing.   
  
‘Ew, Sirius, be careful of what you touch. I heard even her mother is trying to get her promiscuity under control. She’s  _dirty_.’ Anna Cox shouted over the shocked silence. A few whispers among the scattered laughter started up and Ali wasn’t sure what to do. She was furious. She wanted to shout. She balled her hands into fists against Sirius’s chest and pushed away from him ready for a fight to defend her own honour.  
  
‘Actually, that would be my doing.’ Sirius grabbed her hand, staring out at the sea of faces, quite blasé but ever so slightly frustrated. ‘Her parents were a little shocked when an educated and high-class girl, such as herself, decided to bring home a stray dog. But to each their own. You’re certain to find someone into trolls somewhere along the line, Sally.’ Sirius took Ali’s hand within his own and gripped it tightly as they stood against the crowd.  
  
‘Anna!’ Anna shouted, exasperated and seeming ready to explode.   
  
‘Gazuntite.’ Sirius replied with a quirked eyebrow. Then he turned to face Ali, pulled her towards him by her hand and descended on her lips without so much as a moment’s hesitation. Shocked enough by the previous exchange, when Sirius kissed her in full view of at least thirty students, Ali didn’t have enough wits about her to protest. Sirius pulled her body into his own after resting his hand on the small of her back. The kiss was so forcefully passionate that Ali forgot where they were for the duration and by the time he was pulling back, her sight became blurred when she opened her eyes.  
  
As his handsome features swam back into her vision, he was smirking at her. He winked and then pulled her back into a standing position.  
  
‘Come see me when you’re done with your nerd duties.’ He placed one final kiss on her cheek and then he was gone. The onlooking students were all silent, and when Ali turned to watch Sirius go, she realised every mouth was agape. They parted the way for Sirius like the parting of the Red Sea. Once he was gone, every set of eyes snapped away from his retreating back and over to Ali.  
  
Ali savoured, just for a moment, the look of pure horror adorning Anna, Bianca and Maria’s faces simultaneously. Emily wasn’t among them. She became nauseously aware of just how many people had seen that kiss. Not only the members of her dorm, but also a large number of people she often supervised in detentions. And then she saw Regulus Black’s casual indifference beside Barty Crouch and that’s when she regained the ability to think.  
  
‘Uh, back to your- whatever.’ She spoke as she turned around and gently opened the door and crossed over into the first prefect’s carriage. When she was inside she was immediately met with loud, overbearing laughter. James Potter was in a fit beside Lily, and Remus seemed to be quite occupied with a sheet of parchment, even though the smile on his face was quite apparent.   
  
‘Wow, Ali. I really didn’t take you as the type to be eager on public displays, but that was  _iconic_. Did you see the look on those barbies faces?’ Lily looked thoroughly entertain, sitting beside James who was still trying to regain the ability to breathe.  
  
‘Barbies?’ Ali asked, a little confused.  
  
‘Oh, never mind. You’re all so sheltered from the muggle world.’ Lily rolled her eyes, having her joke squandered by technicalities.   
  
‘Well thank goodness for that. At least they hold some integrity for wizarding kind, even if it’s only marginal.’ Barty Crouch sneered at them, as he and Regulus entered into the carriage, striding by their conversation.  
  
‘Be careful Crouch, someone might imperius you again and you’ll be forced to do the biddings of bad witches and wizards.’ Ali warned, growing weary of the Slytherin’s behaviour after so many years of it.  
  
‘You better hope not, Adams. I dare say you’re a target after what your father did.’ His comment was low, and lost to all but Ali, himself and Regulus. Ali contemplated a retort, but decided to watch them go instead. She paid particular attention to Regulus, as she hadn’t seen or heard from him since the terrible end to the Christmas party.   
  
He looked worse for wear. His chin, which was usually held high in the face of all others was dropped and he seemed to be rather transfixed by the floor. His blue eyes darted her way only briefly and it made her breath catch. He looked tired, there was dark circles under his eyes. Even though he was a quiet boy, his eyes always held a certain life in them. Something akin to regal vigour burnt within them. But today they seemed dull and lost.   
  
‘You’re not even supposed to be in here, Crouch. Go back to all your dirty little liar friends and plot more ways to be foul disgraces to your families.’ James spoke up, seeming to have found his breath again.  
  
‘I’m just delivering a message, your grace. I’ll go back to the peasants’ quarters in a jiffy, Head Boy, Sir.’ Crouch fixed them all with a keen, penetrating stare that was colder than subzero temperatures before turning back and disappearing into the next carriage. Regulus was not far behind him.   
  
‘You okay there Adams?’ Ali pulled her attention away from the door sliding shut and realised James was standing beside her, quite tall and rather defensive looking.   
  
‘Oh, yeah. Fine.’ Why did she keep saying that? She wasn’t fine. She had just spoken horrible words to her loving, albeit infuriating mother. She had just received what she took as a threat from a less than desirable Slytherin classmate that she was sure was getting involved in the dark arts, even if her teachers didn’t seem to think it possible. She was just snogged in front of at least eight girls that would surely now want her head on a platter by the boy they all seemed to want more than good grades. What crazy girls. Why would anyone value a boy over getting good grades?  
  
Suddenly she found herself shaking her head and then she noticed Remus staring at her.  
  
‘Sorry? Did you say something?’ She asked, coming back to reality. James laughed beside her while Remus presented her with a warm smile.   
  
‘Nothing important,’ Remus shook his head, returning to his parchment. Then she suddenly felt arms assaulting her person as James grabbed her into a hug and mussed up her hair as she protested.  
  
‘Potter! Stop it!’ She squealed breaking free of his grasp, ‘do you know how long it takes to get my hair to not look like a birds nest? Good grief, you heathen!’ When she looked back in his direction, trying to fix her hair, James was pouting at her like a puppy.  
  
‘Go and assault your girlfriend.’ Ali shook her head at him.  
  
‘Only if you go and assault your  _boyfriend_.’ James sang the last word like he was a second grader talking about cooties. Then the few prefects that had gone home for the break, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor alike, filed into the carriage after the catch up talks with their friends. Ali watched as Dirk Cresswell’s eyebrows threatened to disappear off the top of his head after he heard James’s comment.   
  
‘James. Stop teasing her about her new  _boyfriend_  being  _Sirius Black_.’ Lily snickered at her own cheek as James laughed unabashedly. The whispers started up all over again and all eyes were on Ali. She sighed deeply, but one thing was certain, this wasn’t going away. She collapsed into the seat beside Remus and he looked towards her with a smile. At least Remus always had her back.  
  
‘Yes, well, the fact that they’ve been snogging for the better part of a month should be old news by now, right?’ Ali’s jaw dropped open at Remus’s comment, and he casually went back to reading over his homework while the whispers around the carriage only grew. James lost it in the background. Even Lily was laughing without holding herself back. Ali just directed her attention towards the brickwork flying by outside their windows as the steam train picked up speed and transported them out of the confines of the city and off towards Hogwarts.  
  
‘You’re not actually dating Sirius Black, are you?’ One of the Ravenclaw prefects that took refuge in the booth behind Ali and Remus asked bravely. Ali’s response was to just allow her forehead to smack against the table in defeat, and then she groaned from the pain.  
  
‘Alrighty! Enough gossip you scoundrels! Time to get down to business! We need to discuss some serious issues that happened over the break, and some new security measures we’re implementing. This is going to mean longer rounds hours, but I believe in you guys! We can work together and keep everyone in line and safe!’ James announced, jumping into full ‘Mister Authority’ mode once again.  
  
Ali let his voice wash over her as she kept her head planted on the table and found herself smiling. Her boyfriend, Sirius Black. Her ridiculous, mostly infuriating, but quite adorable boyfriend Sirius Black. She rather enjoyed that term, even if it caused a fight with her parents; had nearly every student once again whispering in her wake; and seemed to be making her the butt of every joke in what she was coming to realise very well might have been her circle of friends. Despite all that, yes, she had a warm feeling in her chest from that term. How strange.  
  
‘I can see you smiling down there.’ Remus whispered through James’s speech, poking her and laughing almost silently.   
  
‘Oh shut up you git.’ She whispered in return and laughed against the table.


	52. Gown recon

Ali sat cross-legged on her bed, Snowball in her lap, a little lost for what to do next. The previous day had been a blur. She had shouted at her mother on the platform. She was kissed without relent before at least two dozen students. She was subjected to hours of stares all through James’ regime for better security measures. He had gone on well after the setting of the sun, with Lily seeming just as invigorated by it as she stood beside him and added many things. By the time they had finished, Ali volunteered to go on a few rounds of the train. It didn’t take her long to feel uneasy and uncomforted due to the amount of students glued to the appearance of her existence. Not  _one_  student didn’t subject her to a stare of disbelief when she walked by them through a carriage or looked in on their private compartment. She even found a burly Ravenclaw second year hexing a Hufflepuff first year and when they noticed her after she called out to them to stop, they froze in awe and both their mouths hung open. The first year didn’t even seem to be aware of the boils popping up all over his face and body.  
  
After she tended to the first year and issued the second year with a detention, she tired of rounds quite a lot faster than she usually would and sought out asylum. She found Sirius, Remus and Peter in a compartment towards the end of the train and sat in with them. Sirius was perfectly normal, as were Peter and Remus. It had comforted her immensely. She wasn’t used to finding the prefect’s carriage to be an unsafe environment, but she wasn’t willing to rule out being hexed by the look of Ravenclaw fifth year prefect, Sarah Vanity. Or of the Hufflepuff’s seventh year prefect, David Fortescue. Both seemed to be looking at her as if she had somehow dishonoured them  _personally_ by taking Sirius Black off the market and they would be seeking revenge.  
  
Sirius seemed to spare her of any more public displays, and for that she was quite thankful. She felt a calmness surround her that these boys, at the very least, seemed to be treating her very much the same. She sat by Remus in the carriage up to Hogwarts from Hogsmeade station and talked to him about her charms homework. They reminisced over the aguamenti charm that had brought the two together as friends over a year ago now. Peter and Sirius were laughing over something together and Ali noted that when Sirius mentioned only Remus, James and himself were allowed to torment Peter, it was his way of saying Peter was very much a part of their hearts.   
  
When they had gotten settled in the castle, and Ali had put Snowball safely into the common room, she felt the eyes on her again. The boys had disappeared up to their dorms for just a moment. She seemed to forget about the eyes following her when the boys were around her. They were so loud, they drew all the attention to themselves and ceased any internal thoughts. She remembered a conversation she once had with Remus about just that, and thought he was deluded. But as she’d stood in that common room, trying to offer casual smiles to passers-by, she very much missed the presence of the boys.   
  
Luckily James found her and his overbearing need for bodily contact definitely put an end to noticing anyone else but him. While it seemed she was oddly craving the contact of Sirius, she found she hadn’t changed towards anyone else in the way of disliking closeness. How odd indeed. The boys weren’t far behind James, either. And they all went down to dinner together. Once again she was comforted with the loud chatter of James, Peter and Sirius while she and Remus sat together and ate quietly. Lily had gone off with Marlene to catch up with Mary who had stayed at school over the break. Marlene had been on the train, and James and Lily had found a compartment with her after their rounds. Marlene still wasn’t ready to talk to Remus it seemed, and so the groups stood divided.   
  
After dinner, Ali was ready to throw herself back into her study and followed the boys up to the common room to grab her things. Thankfully her dorm mates were still down at dinner, and she let the boys know where she was going. Sirius had just smiled at her and nodded. But once Ali was out in the open on her own she immediately regretted her decision. She had no less than five students bombard her on the way through the corridors and down to the third floor. They all wanted to know if it was true. Was she  _really_  dating Sirius Black?   
  
Three of the students were peeved looking girls, who huffed when Ali wouldn’t dignify them with an answer and told them to go do their homework. Two were boys, both seeming rather dejected and the last of whom she got fed up with and said, ”Yes for Merlin’s sake I’m dating Sirius Black! What is the big  _deal_?” and the Slytherin fifth year pouted and sulked away with a “figures.”   
  
When two students decided to take up seats at her usually deserted table towards to the back of the library and continued to stare at her for almost half an hour, she gave up.  
  
When she returned upstairs, only briefly slowed down by Peeves who was hiding in suits of armour shouting naughty jingles at people, she entered the portrait hole to James standing on the table before the fire. He was using his hands to forcefully animate a joke he was telling and both Peter and Sirius were in hysterics. Sirius’s bark-like laugh could be heard all through the common room and Peter had fallen from the couch and was rolling around on the floor. Even Remus was laughing without a guarded air or a hand over his mouth and for the first time in her life, Ali felt drawn to them all.   
  
She’d made her way over to them, only to catch the end of the joke about exactly why the hag had wanted a refund on her wand. It was a disturbingly sexual joke and Ali’s entire face had gone bright red as she stopped behind the couch Sirius was laying in, flailing his legs around with laughter. “James Potter!” were the only words that Ali could come up with as James just smiled down at her and winked. Sirius had sat up in the couch and turned around to meet her, laughter still threatening to break his composure.  
  
Sirius had reached out and pulled her over the back of the couch and on top of him as the boys laughed at his actions. Ali protested until she got herself comfortable beside him, and then she found herself smiling against her will. The attention shifted from her instantly though as Peter piped in that he had another one, and the boys all turned to him to listen. It was while Peter was relaying another sexually inappropriate joke that Ali decided perhaps reading over her finished homework for a second time wasn’t  _that_  important. She’d settled into the couch and zoned out with a smile and while the boys were all laughing at Peter, Sirius sneaked a look around to her, and reached over to lay a kiss on her lips.  
  
She decided she very much liked that as he had instantly returned his attention to Peter instead of making her uncomfortable in any way.  
  
She stayed up with boys until most of the common room had cleared out. She had caved a little and started reading over her homework, and found it wasn’t as hard as she might have thought with so much noise. When the boys decided to head up to bed, she followed suit and waved goodnight to them all before heading up to her dorm. When she walked in she was met with the abrupt end to her dorm mates’ conversations and silence as she crossed the short distance to her bed. She’d closed the curtains around her after Snowball had joined her. She heard the girls all talking about her and did her best to ignore it, falling asleep soon after.  
  
Now she sat up, with the curtains still drawn, wondering what today would hold. More whispers? More students probing her for personal questions? She let forth a sigh and returned to the warmth under her blankets. It was still dark out, so she wasn’t in any rush. Snowball was very appreciative for the turn of events and purred loudly as he clawed the blanket beneath him and curled back up. She scratched him gently behind the ear as she let her mind wander for a good while. Perhaps she should write to her mother and apologise for her horrible words the previous day? It was as good a time as any.  
  
She got up from her bed and decided to go and write it downstairs in the common room and that’s when she realised something. She stood just outside her bed after carefully and silently locating a quill, ink and some parchment and realised… she  _still_  didn’t have her dressing gown. Her heart rate suddenly picked up as her mind drifted back to the night she lost it.   
  
‘Come on Snowball.’ She whispered, opening her dorm door and leaving to reclaim her fine silk garment.   
  
She was on a mission, and it was lucky it was so early still because she didn’t want  _anyone_  seeing her in her tiny pyjamas. She tended to even work around her dorm mates seeing them when she could. She definitely needed that dressing gown back. She crept up the stairs leaving Snowball down in the common room to curl up on an armchair. She got to the floor she knew to belong to the seventh year boys and expertly turned the handle, stepping into the room with the agility of a feline.  
  
She looked around and all the drapes were very much open, and everyone seemed to be fast asleep. She looked to James first as she took a few more steps inside. He looked peaceful and strange without his glasses covering his face. He was asleep over his blankets and sheets which were still made on his bed since the Hogwarts house elves had changed them. He looked as if he’d barely moved in his starfish position, one arm tucked under the pillow beneath his head.   
  
She looked over to Peter and he was under his blankets and looked as if he were doing sleeping the correct way. His head was on his pillow, he was turned on his side, and his breathing was short and sharp. Every breath out he made ended in a tiny squeak before he drew back in again with his arm rested over his still pristine looking blankets.   
  
She didn’t even both to decipher where Remus ended and the mound of blankets began. As she moved around by his bed, she heard soft breaths, almost like growls coming from somewhere in the quilted knoll. Then she arrived at Sirius’s bed. The elves had clearly changed their sheets over the break and yet  _somehow_ , Aaliyah never hoped to find out how, Sirius had managed to  _completely_  ruinthem. His blankets were in piled waves to either sides of the bed. The sheets were ripped from the edges and rumpled up at the bottom, twisted around Sirius’s left foot. There were two pillows discarded, one Ali had to tip toe over to get to his bedside.  
  
Sirius was laying on his front, and Ali found her eyes lingering on his back as it expanded and contracted with his breaths. He was just in a pair of briefs and Ali didn’t realise she had bitten onto her bottom lip as her eyes honed in on his backside. She shook her head and looked up to his head. His hair was splayed out, the tips falling around the mattress and his face was facing the opposite direction. There was only singular pillow left, and instead of using it, Sirius only had a hand rested underneath it.   
  
Ali frowned at his ridiculousness, but then she noticed something pink. On closer inspection, she lifted the pillow up and his hand was firmly clutched around what was indeed her dressing gown. It was crumpled and looked to now be dirtier than when she last saw it, but it was certainly her dressing gown.  
  
‘He sleeps with it.’ Ali nearly jumped a foot in the air even though it was just a whisper that met her ears. She turned around to look at James, who was reaching out to the bedside table to find his glasses. Once they were on his face he smiled back at her, propped up by his elbow.  
  
‘I guessed it was yours because he’s had it ever since we left you with him the night we came back from seeing Rosy.’ James’ eyes shifted from Ali, down to Sirius beyond her. ‘He’s never said a word about it. I suspect he thinks he’s being covert, but we’ve all noticed it.’  
  
Ali turned around to look back at Sirius and he didn’t stir at all. His body was a dead weight. One hand up behind his head, pink silk grasped tight. The other arms was folded under his chest. His breaths were even. Until they weren’t. They picked up in speed and his previous still body was ruptured with movement. He twitched slightly in his shoulder and his head. He made small, barely audible noises. Almost like a dog when it was dreaming. But these noises didn’t sound serene. They sounded more distressed.  
  
Suddenly he started kicking around, moving in his position. It was quite violent and Ali made sure to move back to avoid any stray limbs. He thrashed around for a moment, turning his body to face Ali and James. His face was tense with what looked like pain. The thrashing subsided but his face did not ease. His breaths were short and sharp for a while, whilst Ali looked on. His hand was still firmly clasping the pink nightgown. He suddenly drew his fist under his chin as he curled over onto his side and then moved to rest his cheek against the silk. Then his breathing began to even out and his face relaxed.  
  
‘He hasn’t had the easiest life.’ James spoke softly. When Ali turned to him, he was sitting up now. ‘He has a lot of nightmares.’ He sighed and didn’t take his eyes off the boy before them. Ali could see the concern all over his face as he took a deep breath and the smile returned to his face.   
  
‘But he really seems to like you.’ James stood up and instantly assaulted her person, messing up her hair. Usually she would have made a much louder protest. But given the time of day, her hair couldn’t have looked all that great anyway. Regardless, their exchange seemed to disturb the occupants of the dorm. Peter’s tiny squeaks turned into a yawn. Remus’s little growls stopped and the blanket could be heard rustling. He wasn’t making to move them off himself, he was actually burying himself deeper within them.  
  
Once Ali had pushed James off her and smacked him, he moved off to his trunk laughing. She found it odd that there was no question as to why she was there, James just seemed to accept her presence.   
  
‘What time is it?’ Peter’s sleepy voice came from the other end of the room.  
  
‘Too early.’ Remus’s muffled voice replied.  
  
‘James, what time is it?’ Peter asked again clearly not enjoying Remus’s bleak answer.  
  
‘Sun’s up, so time to get up.’ James chirped brightly. When Ali looked over to him, he was pulling off his bed shirt and Ali quickly turned away.  
  
‘Potter I don’t want to see you in your pants.’ Ali objected looking at Sirius, who was still asleep and clinging to her gown.  
  
‘Hey this is our dorm. You want in, you have to deal with my pants.’ James chuckled and Peter yelped and quickly wrapped his sheet around himself as he had gotten up from his bed wearing only his pyjama bottoms. Ali smiled down at Sirius as he stirred from the noise. His face looked cross and his shoulder and opposite leg were twitching in subconscious annoyance.  
  
‘She seems to be okay with his pants though.’ Ali’s attention darted over to Remus who was peeping out of his blanket fort to grin at her.  
  
‘Shut  _up_.’ Sirius groaned in his sleep.  
  
‘Watch your tone, Black.’ Ali narrowed her eyes down at him in Remus’s defence. Sirius's eye’s suddenly snapped open and he looked up at her in mild disbelief. Then, as if he were coming to the realization of the present day, his face broke into a smile. Not a sly smile, not a guarded smile, but a genuinely happy smile.  
  
Although, it didn’t take long for it to morph. He reached up and pulled Ali down before she was aware of his plans.   
  
‘Sirius! Sirius stop it!’ Ali protested, but it was a feeble protest as she began laughing uncontrollably when Sirius dug his fingers into her sides. He tickled her and laughed along as she giggled uncontrollably.   
  
‘Padfoot ease up, she’ll suffocate.’ Remus yawned and sat up in his blankets.   
  
‘I’m off to quidditch practice lads! Padfoot, keep it tame. The boys are still in here.’ James announced at the same time Sirius let Ali take a breath.  
  
‘Unhand me!’ Ali pushed Sirius away trying to hide the fact that she had a massive smile across her features.   
  
‘Nope.’ Sirius disagreed easily and pulled her back down as she tried to escape. He didn’t tickle her this time and just let an arm rest over her and shut his eyes again.  
  
‘Shut your drapes. Exhibitionists.’   
  
‘That’s a big word Pete! Where’d you learn that?’ Sirius teased him as he gathered his things up to go down for a shower. James was already out the door. Ali noted how much nicer this environment was compared to her own dorm in the mornings. The boys all bantered with one another, but somehow their insults weren’t meant to hurt. Peter tossed a pair of socks over at them and managed to hit Sirius in the chest.  
  
‘Yuck! I’m going to catch something from your foot fungus.’ Sirius complained and Ali sat up and hit him.  
  
‘You deserved it. Don’t be mean to him.’ Ali watched as Sirius tossed the socks into the abyss that was the floor of their dorm.   
  
‘I like her. She’s nice.’ Peter declared on his way out of the dorm, smiling at Ali.  
  
‘That’s because she’s a social reject like you.’ Sirius quipped as he made a move to pull Ali back down towards him. He received an elbow to the gut though and groaned in pain. Ali laughed maliciously at her revenge as Remus slid out of his bed onto the floor in an attempt at getting up. He didn’t do very well though, because he just kind of lay there on the floor not moving.   
  
Ali allowed herself another laugh and she couldn’t remember a time where a morning had been so full of laughter for her at school. It just didn’t happen. Back home Tucker and her father would always make her laugh with their witty retorts and mischievous behaviour. She didn’t realise school could also be an amusing place.  
  
Then she remembered the reason she had ventured up to the dorm and that she was very scarcely clad. She turned around to look at Sirius and he was closely examining her lower half.  
  
‘What are you looking at?’ Ali warned, turning her body to him.  
  
‘Just uh-‘ Sirius slowly let his eyes wander up her front, ‘-your… pyjamas.’ He nodded with a grin like he was satisfied with that answer.  
  
‘Are you going to kidnap those also and never return them?’ Ali raised a brow at him. Sirius shrugged putting his head back down and snuggled into the clothing held prisoner.   
  
Ali sighed, ‘you should get up and start getting ready.’  
  
‘Nah.’   
  
‘Then give me my gown back.’   
  
‘Nah.’   
  
‘Black.’  
  
‘Nah, Sirius sounds better coming out of your mouth.’ Sirius opened one eye, grinning up at her.  
  
‘Yuck.’ Ali pushed Sirius so hard in her playful disgust of his cheesiness, he toppled off the bed with a loud thump. Remus laughed into the floor from his position, belly down, among the many disturbing things littering the floorboards.   
  
‘Oh man Padfoot, you have it bad.’ Remus started, propping himself up to look at Sirius as he sat up close to him and peeled a honeydukes wrapper off his tricep, ‘if any of us woke you up we’d be subjected to your morning temper. She pushes you off your own bed and you just groan.’   
  
Ali chuckled evilly as she pulled her dressing gown over her pyjamas in triumph. Victory! Remus stood up smiling, then decided it was too early and got back into bed. Sirius stayed put on the floor and rested his chin on the mattress looking up at Ali. He pouted seeing her in the gown.  
  
‘What?’ Ali shook her head at him.  
  
‘Nothing.’ Sirius sighed.   
  
‘ _What_?’ Ali pestered him. He was clearly sulking about something. She couldn’t quite figure out what.  
  
‘Nah,’ he pulled himself up and onto the bed again, ‘it’s okay. I have the real thing now anyway.’ He smiled at her, then reached forward and placed a gentle kiss to her lips.  
  
‘It was nice… waking up to you.’ Ali barely made out what he said, he whispered it so lightly. It took her a moment to register it, but when she did, she wasn’t repulsed this time. She copied his movements and gave him a kiss back before hopping off the bed to get ready for the day. She would need her best foot forward today to battle any of the ridiculous girls upset by her coupling with Sirius, and to dodge any of the boys seemingly frustrated over the same thing.   
  
When she looked back to bid Remus and Sirius farewell, they were both fast asleep. She smiled and slammed the door shut, cackling when Sirius yelled out her name in anger along with a few other colourful words.


	53. The strongest of the Marauders

James rubbed his eyes behind his glasses. They were shutting of their own accord. He was currently walking the halls past curfew for a very different reason than he once used to. It was a very rude awakening for Hogwarts, the presence of Voldemort infiltrating the school. And students attacking faculty members and other students alike, under an unforgivable curse (or so they claimed), was no laughing matter. This meant action had to be taken. That night after Sirius had left to take Adams home, their headmaster had turned up not a moment later.   
  
Dumbledore had encouraged Mr Adams not to file a report over the matter at the ministry. They began speaking away from Lily and himself, which frustrated James. The most he had heard of the conversation was something about Barty Crouch’s father being Mr Adams boss.  He was still angry that he wasn’t let in on the reasons for their clandestineness. He was Head Boy. He was surely trusted enough now to help. He was  _sure_  Dumbledore was planning something, or doing something. He wanted in on whatever that  _something_  was. For now he settled with taking drastic measures in school security.   
  
James wasn’t as naïve as their headmaster. Or at least as forgiving, because Dumbledore must have seen through Snape and the others’ lies. The group pleaded innocence and feigned being cursed and forced to attack at the party. He seemed to assure Mr Adams that he wasn’t going to let them off Scott-free, and once he had him convinced of this he turned to Lily and James.  
  
He discussed with them both that they needed to be on guard, now, more than ever. He stated that the students caught were to be watched. He let James know that it would not just be them he would be relaying this message to, but both the teachers as well as the staff and prefects. Dumbledore certainly wasn’t taking this attempt to recruit his students as a joke. And for that, James was glad. As he turned the corner down a deserted corridor on the fifth floor he almost walked into a suit of armour and had to steady himself.  
  
As he did, he realised someone was walking slowly backwards towards him, obviously trying to keep a lookout for any teachers or prefects. James suddenly felt a lot more awake when he noticed who the greasy, lank hair belonged to. He reached into his robe pocket and drew out his wand, holding it before him as Snape backed up right into its point. He snapped around, robes in a floury with his own wand drawn.  
  
‘Steady there Snivelly. Don’t want to get expelled in your second last term. It would be  _such_  a shame.’ James used cool, steady words as the two stared each other down. Malicious intent simmered from each side.  
  
Snape didn’t reply. He just glared down his hook nose towards James before straightening up and lowering his wand at the same time James did.  
  
‘Got a reason for being out of bed? Because I’d really rather not have to supervise a detention for you and your greasy hair.’  
  
‘I do  _actually_.’ Snape stared down his hook nose at James and a flicker on a smile crossed his face before it rested back to its natural, unpleasant indifference.   
  
‘I was just in the headmaster’s office, receiving a little reforming. He received an  _urgent_  owl and requested I come out to find you.’  
  
James didn’t like his tone, ‘then why were you  _sneaking_?’  
  
‘You can spend all the hours you want questioning me, but I wouldn’t dare  _lie_  to the  _Head Boy_. I’m to fetch the Head Girl also, but you might want to hurry. I doubt its pleasant news.’  
  
‘I don’t want you near Lily.’  
  
‘That’s not really your call,  _Potter_.’ They stared at one another, not a blink exchanged between them. Snape’s mouth twitched with the words he was on the verge of spilling when they both turned around to James’s name being called out to them.  
  
‘James!’ Lily called out again when she spotted them. None other than Barty Crouch was by her side. It suddenly dawned on James why Snape was sneaking around so quietly when it wasn’t trouble he was trying to avoid. He wanted to avoid  _James_  in an attempt at a fleeting moment with Lily. And he had to get to her before Crouch for that. James had caught Snape enough times, staring at Lily from distances or lingering close by. These days he would just send a jinx his way and silently leave the scene. There were more important things to do with his time than fight for a girl that had already quite clearly made her choice.  
  
‘James it’s the headmaster, we have to go. Now.’ Lily stressed as she came to a stop behind Snape as he and James refused to break eye contact.   
  
‘James!’ Lily warned once more and James pushed by Snape, causing him to falter and grabbed Lily’s hand to leave the Slytherin’s to themselves.   
  
‘If you two aren’t back in your common room within the next ten minutes I  _will_  know! And you’ll both serve detentions with Filch!’ James called out behind him as Lily urged him onwards to Dumbledore’s office. James reached into his robe pocket and retrieved the map, ready for use as soon as he felt it necessary.   
  
‘James, what do you think is wrong? It’s unusual, Dumbledore wanting to see us so late.’ Lily spoke as they descended stairs and hastily made their way through corridors across to the other side of the school.   
  
‘I hope they caught another one of them at it, I hope one of them gets expelled this time.’ James secretly hoped. He liked the idea of giving the Slytherin’s second chances about as much as he liked the dark arts.  
  
‘I hope nothing’s wrong.’ Lily’s voice was slightly higher than usual and James gave her hand a squeeze.  
  
‘I won’t let  _anything_  happen to you.’ He announced as they arrived at the entrance to Dumbledore’s office, ‘no one will ever hurt you, so long as I’m alive.’ James gave her a goofy grin as he peered down at her through his glasses.   
  
Lily pushed her bottom lip up into her top and furrowed her brows looking back at him. She sighed serenely and grabbed his other hand in hers and took a deep breath.  
  
‘James, you’re an idiot, and you drive me crazy. But… I love you.’ As Lily said it, blood swelled in her cheeks and her attention to their shoes became of the upmost importance. James was lost for words. A great smile broke across his face. He dropped her hands and engulfed her in a bone crushing hug as Lily laughed.  
  
‘James, stop! We need to go up!’ Lily called out as James swung her around kissing any part of her he could reach. James felt like his heart was about to explode. He knew he loved Lily. He’d known it for longer than he cared to remember. They had been dating for over four months as it was now February and well into their second term. The fact that Lily felt the same way he did gave him a sense of calm. Like everything was right in the world.  
  
‘I love you.’ James kissed Lily again, ‘I love you so much.’ More kisses. ‘I love you more than quidditch.’  
  
‘Don’t go overboard now.’ Lily giggled uncontrollably as James continued his assault. James pulled back and stared down at the redhead before him. Lily was gorgeous. She had a headband in her hair, keeping it out of her face tonight. Her long thick locks were running down her back and her fair skin resembled fine porcelain. Although people would think Lily’s most defining feature to fall to her loud hair colour, James knew it to be her eyes.   
  
Lily’s eyes were unmistakably green. Others with green eyes could look blue in the right lights, or could be confused for hazel at times. Not Lily Evans. Her eyes were enchanting. James sometimes completely lost his train of thought, just because he couldn’t keep a level head when looking into those deep green eyes. He kissed her once more before straightening up and securing her hand in his own once more.  
  
‘Shall we, m’love?’ James winked at Lily and she shook her head at him, before she supplied the ugly stone gargoyle with the password to let them through. Once they were admitted, they stepped onto the moving staircase and knocked twice at the oak door when they arrived at the top. Dumbledore’s reply was quieter than usual, but they entered all the same.  
  
James couldn’t keep the smile from his face. This school year was his best to date. He had won the affections of the goddess beside him. He was Head Boy, and in so saying, trusted by the headmaster before them. The headmaster he knew to be the greatest Hogwarts had ever seen, and someone he looked up to as both a prankster and a wizard. His best friend was happier than he’d ever seen him, having started dating Adams over a month prior. They were a strange couple to be sure, but if Sirius was happy, James was happy. All four of the boys were on top of their homework. James had coached his team harder than ever and their match with Hufflepuff was in three weeks and he was  _confident_.   
  
James Potter was at a high point of his life.  
  
‘James.’ Dumbledore seemed to have been pacing his office before they arrived. He stood tall before them, his hands behind his back.  
  
‘Was there anything you needed, Professor?’ James stepped towards him, with Lily tight by his side.  
  
‘James, I have some grave news.’ Dumbledore reached forth and placed a hand on his shoulder. His other hand came to rest by his side and in it was a letter. ‘James your father has passed away tonight.’  
  
As the words left his headmaster’s mouth, James wasn’t quite sure he’d registered them. He continued to smile as Dumbledore’s hand clasped his shoulder.   
  
‘I- I beg your pardon, Professor?’ James asked, as his smile faltered.   
  
‘Oh James.’ He heard Lily to his left, and then felt her arms closing around him. Dumbledore’s hand left his shoulder as he was smothered by Lily’s hair. He felt frozen. Had he just heard his professor correctly? He couldn’t have.  
  
‘Professor?’ James asked again, holding Lily back from her hug, ‘I think I miss heard you.’ James stated turning back to Dumbledore.  
  
‘It is with my  _deepest_  regret, James that I have to inform you of this. But your father has left our world tonight. Your mother has written to me from St. Mungo’s. She has also asked me to send you along, to say your goodbyes. Miss Evans is, of course, welcome to join you.’  
  
James could hear his heart beating. He could feel it pumping in his chest. He blinked. His eyebrows pushed together creating a frown. He reached up and pulled his glasses off and began busying himself with cleaning them on his robes.  
  
‘James?’ He could hear Lily talking to him, he just didn’t know how to respond. His father… was dead? His eyes felt hot, and his throat felt like it was closing up. ‘James?’ Lily’s voice floated to him again.  
  
‘I’ll have set up a portkey to St. Mungo’s, I dare say your mother will be needing you right now.’ Dumbledore spoke again and James looked from Lily back to their headmaster. But he felt as if he were glued to the spot. He couldn’t move. His face wasn’t working properly. It was twitching to a smile then faltering over and over again. He blinked and looked between Lily and Dumbledore.   
  
‘Could-‘ James started, feeling as if something was crushing his chest and going on a warpath up into his throat. ‘Could I grab Sirius? I just- I need Sirius.’ He held on tight to Lily’s hand as he spoke. He didn’t want her leaving him, too. He could hear talking happening around him, but his vision was blurry. Had he lost his glasses? Was his hearing failing? He kept his grip on Lily’s hand tighter than ever and stared down at the floor, confused.   
  
His father was… gone? His heart was pumping. His father was no longer alive? He felt his breaths becoming harder and harder to take. He was never going to speak to his father again? That couldn’t be right. Who was he going to go to about his career questions? He still hadn’t decided what path he was going to take. Who was he going to go to with advice about his relationship? Who was he going to tell about all the pranks he and Sirius had gotten away with this semester while still being Head Boy? What about his graduation ceremony? His wedding? What about when he had his first child? He always thought he would hand his baby over to his father and they would cry happily together. Who was he supposed to do that with now?   
  
His father couldn’t be dead. This had to be a prank. He was getting payback for all the times he’d wreaked havoc on the school. This was payback. This couldn’t be real. His father was sick, surely, but he was going to get better. He  _had_  to get better. This all had to be a joke.  
  
James looked around him, trying to register where he was. He was still in Dumbledore’s office. He looked from his headmaster to his girlfriend and tried to speak. No words came out. He tried again.  
  
‘This isn’t a joke, is it?’ James asked quietly. He wasn’t met with a reply, and instead with a very solemn look from Lily.  
  
‘He’s on his way.’ Another voice came and James turned to look up at one of the portraits where the previous headmaster had just re-entered his frame.  
  
‘Thank you, Ambrose.’ Dumbledore spoke and James followed his voice. It was still hard to breathe. They heard footfalls in the distance, charging up the stairs beyond the office door which was then thrown open.  
  
‘I might just leave you two to it and pop out to contact the Ministry about permission for the portkey, as I know them to get a little cross over unauthorized ones.’ Dumbledore nodded to Sirius as they crossed paths. Sirius was panting as he reached them.  
  
‘Prongs, mate, are-‘ Sirius was looking at him with a face filled with worry, ‘-are you okay?’ He shook his head, ‘Of course you’re not okay. What am I saying?’ Sirius swallowed and looked as solemn as Lily. He looked fretfully back at James, who was still glued to the spot. James felt lost as he stared at two of the most important people in his life. Lily, he now realised, was crying. She looked to be trying to cover it up and that’s when he seemed to snap to his senses.  
  
‘Don’t cry.’ The words left his mouth and he pulled her into his arms. He pulled her head into his chest and kissed the part in her hair. As he sighed and looked back to Sirius, he wasn’t crying, but he looked just as wounded. James reached out and pulled his best friend into the hug also, knowing he had to protect them both.   
  
Sirius reached around and pat James on the back with a closed fist as Lily’s sobs became audible. The three of them stayed like that for some time. Lily rested her head on James' shoulder and Sirius had his cheek against the back of Lily’s head, keeping a firm hold on the back of James robes. James felt his eyes stinging, but for some reason he couldn’t allow himself to cry.  He wanted to be strong. He  _needed_  to be strong not only for the two people before him, but also for his mother. He needed to get to his mother.

*

Days went by and Lily got increasingly more worried. The night Dumbledore had informed she and James of his father’s passing, James had acted a little oddly, but he had not yet shed a tear. Lily had found herself blubbering almost immediately despite her trying to hide it. She’d only met Mr Potter a handful of times, and he hadn’t been overly well, but he was a kind-hearted and wonderful man. Losing him was horrible. But she was really starting to worry about James. The way he was dealing with losing a parent wasn’t natural.   
  
‘Sirius,’ Lily whispered, pulling him out of the crowded kitchen and into the hall.   
  
‘What?’ Sirius asked, frowning at her. The three of them had gotten to St. Mungo’s together that night with Dumbledore’s help. Mrs Potter was a mess. Mr Potter had looked peaceful and both James and Sirius had said their goodbyes. Since then they had stayed with Mrs Potter at the Potter home with the permission of their headmaster. It had been almost five full days and still  _not. one. tear!_  
  
‘He hasn’t cried. I’m starting to worry Sirius.’ Lily admitted. Sirius made a face at her like she was losing the plot a little. Which arguably she was. Her boyfriend, her perfect, wonderful, loving boyfriend who she had been dating less than half a year just lost his  _father_. She was freaking out. What did you do in this situation? Was there a right way to do this?   
  
‘I think he’s okay, Evans. He’s upset, but he’s just dealing with it his own way.’ Sirius clapped her on the shoulder and nodded.  
  
‘Wouldn’t you cry if your father died?’ Lily asked.  
  
‘Uh, no. Probably not.’ Sirius smiled at her, ‘it’s okay. Just relax. They’ll be okay. Mrs P will just throw herself into cooking. Organising this funeral took her mind off it for a while at least and James just wants to be around to make sure she’s okay for a bit. Just kiss him a lot, you’re doing great.’ He gave her a thumbs up and Lily smacked him. She allowed herself a chuckle as Sirius left to re-enter the kitchen.  
  
When Lily decided to follow suit, she had to dodge three kids running to get by her into the kitchen also. In the kitchen there were a number of people she didn’t know. Many of them were friends and very distant relatives of the Potter’s. Mrs Potter was very busy making at least sixty percent more food than was necessary. She was chatting to a gaggle of women her age. James was lingering around her chatting to a middle-aged wizard. The three children that almost knocked Lily over were now all making a ruckus under the kitchen table.   
  
The service wasn’t too different from the muggle one Lily had attended for her grandparents over the years. Probably more flamboyant in her opinion. But she had come to realise wizards and witches seemed to enjoy showing off when they gathered. And a lot of people had come to the ceremony and burial. Now the closer members had come back to the Potter’s home for the wake.   
  
‘Horrible reason to get out of the house, a death, but it is nice to get out.’ One wizard said to another as Lily walked by.  
  
‘Yes, such a shame. But it is nice that he went of natural causes, it’s a rare thing in this war.’ The other replied.   
  
Lily made her way over to Mrs Potter. She was on overdrive with food prep.  
  
‘Is there anything I can do Mrs Potter?’ She asked as she reached her.  
  
‘Oh Lily, dear. No, no. You just keep James company. I’ve got this under complete control.’ The shorter lady offered her a warm smile as she clasped her arms. She quickly drew her into a hug, which Lily was getting quite used to. She pat Mrs Potter’s back and sighed once she returned to the food and her old friend’s conversation.  
  
Lily watched James from a distance as he interacted with the occupants of the wake. It powered on into the evening. By the time the last old wizard left, giving Mrs Potter a good squeeze and wiping his eye from a few stray tears, Lily was spent.   
  
Sirius had fallen asleep at the kitchen table, his head rested on his forearms and a sheet of parchment under his face. Lily walked by him to see if she could make it out. The part poking out was certainly a letter and once she read the words  _I might be looking forward to your return, I might not_  she knew it must have been a letter from Ali. Lily reached over and brushed the hair from his face with a smile. She was happy she took a chance and tried to get the two of them together, because she’d never seen either of them so happy.  
  
Mrs Potter was making her way around clearing up what mess was leftover. It wasn’t much as her friends had helped before they departed. Lily realised she hadn’t seen James in a while and went on a hunt. She checked upstairs first, but he wasn’t in his bedroom. She checked a few more rooms but he was nowhere to be seen. She came back downstairs and checked the kitchen to find Mrs Potter waking Sirius up.  
  
‘Come on honey, let’s get you to bed. Is that a letter? Who is it from?’ Mrs Potter asked pulling a sleepy Sirius to his feet.  
  
‘Mm, letter.’ Sirius replied, ‘from an angel.’ He muttered with a smirk.  
  
‘An angel?’ Mrs Potter asked, passing Lily who was trying to stop herself from laughing.  
  
‘Yeah. An angel. With a really  _bad_  attitude.’  
  
‘Tell me more  _this instant_.’ Mrs Potter urged him as they left the kitchen and made for the stairs. Lily could hear them continuing in the distance but she wanted to find James now. She searched the downstairs area. The sitting room, the study, the lower guest room were all empty.   
  
Finally she stepped out of the house onto the front porch and looked around. Mrs Potter had gone to the trouble of enchanting the bushes with moving fairy lights. It was a bitter but clear winter night as the season was slowly morphing into spring. Lily looked up at the stars and wrapped her cardigan around her. She made her way around the porch towards the back of the house.   
  
The Potter’s garden was immaculate. The hedges were all trimmed perfectly and there was even an enchanted water feature in the backyard and a little white picket well. Lily wandered down off the porch and into the backyard, taking in all the lovely smells from the rose bushes and other planted flowers. That’s where she found James, sitting in the gazebo out the back. She watched him for a moment, but he just seemed to be looking up at the stars out around him.  
  
‘Is this seat taken?’ Lily asked taking the steps up to get to him.  
  
‘Please.’ James replied, scooting up a little on the cushioned bench. Lily sat down beside him and he shuffled so she could snuggle in beside him, resting her head against his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around her and neither one of them spoke for a while. The water from the water feature ticked in the background and they could hear a couple of gnomes arguing in the bushes.  
  
‘Are you okay James? Do you want to- talk about it?’ Lily tried. James didn’t reply at first.  
  
‘He really liked you.’ James spoke after the silence.  
  
‘He was a wonderful man.’  
  
‘Yeah. He was. And he really liked you. And he loved Sirius. Remus and Peter, too. So, knowing that he approved of the life I lead, that’s what matters.’ James sounded so sure, Lily was in awe.  
  
‘But, you haven’t cried. Not even once James.’ Lily sat up and looked across at him. James just smiled.  
  
‘That’s because I’m not sad. At first I was sad. I was shocked. I didn’t know what the heck to do.   
  
         ‘But as soon as I saw him, I knew he wouldn’t have wanted that. All he wanted was the best for me. And-‘ James shrugged, ‘I have the best.’  
  
Lily had tears in her eyes again. How had this boy grown up so much without her even noticing? The boy that used to assault her with terrible pickup lines once a  _day_. The boy that yelled at her to go out with him. The boy that tried to impress her  _by hexing her_. He was arguably mentally impaired. The most  _immature_  idiot to walk the earth.  
  
But today, he was more mature than even her.   
  
‘I love you. I love you  _so_  much.’ Lily got out, wiping her eyes as James reached out and pulled her into a hug.  
  
‘I love you, too.’ James whispered, kissing her cheek. Lily was suddenly overwhelmed with an undying need to show James she loved him. To make him sure of exactly how much control he had over her heart. She pulled his face down to her own and kissed him heatedly. She didn’t think loving someone this much was possible.  Being in love both hurt and yet was the most amazing feeling she’d ever felt. She didn’t know how to tell him this, and so did her best to show it.   
  
She pulled a leg over his lap and straddled him without breaking their kiss. Her fingers made their way down to his suit shirt and worked on undoing the buttons. She wasn’t sure if this was the most appropriate way to end a wake… but life was messy and this felt right.  
  
James obliged in ridding his top half of clothes and took his wand out and performed a few non-verbal charms on the gazebo all without breaking contact with her. There wasn’t even any verbal need for assurance, they both knew exactly what was happening and that they both wanted, and needed it. They had spoken of such things in the past. Lily had found out James hadn’t actually done it with anyone else before, which made her feel terrible, because she had. James knew this and was only embarrassed that he was less experienced than she was. Rushing in to sex with her summer boyfriend in the past is what led her to wanting to wait, but she was ready now.   
  
James slipped her dress over her head and returned to kissing her. She knew now that James was the perfect guy for her. She didn’t need to wait anymore, she had the rest of her life with James. She was sure of that now.


	54. Heckling Potter

It had been a few weeks since Mr Potter had passed away and Sirius, along with Lily and James, had been back at school for a fortnight. James seemed to be handling himself insanely well, and he and Lily were inseparable. They held hands everywhere they went but mostly they were happy to be in the company of the rest of the gang. Sirius found himself up earlier than usual after a bad dream. He sat up drenched in sweat, breathing heavily. James seemed to have already left, but both Peter and Remus were still sound asleep.  
  
Sirius sighed as his breaths evened out. He’d been having less of these flashback nightmares since his life was unusually cheerful of late.  Even after losing the closest thing he had to a loving father recently, he was still uncharacteristically happy. Being in a relationship with Aaliyah Adams was not conventional by anyone’s standards. She hit him and cursed him more than she kissed him, but it would have seemed he liked that.   
  
Mr Potter had passed away on February ninth and the funeral took place on the fifteenth. This meant Sirius had missed Valentines with his newly appointed girlfriend. He thought she would have made some kind of fuss about it, he knew girls to make a big deal about it from all the valentines he had received in the past. But when he tried to make it up to her once they had returned to school, she got rather confused at the idea of roses or the two of them sneaking out to go on a date.  
  
 _That’s against school rules Sirius…_  her voice floated into his head and he laughed silently, untangling his legs from his bed sheets. He decided he wanted to get up and get ready early. He kept missing Ali at breakfasts. She got up a lot earlier than he or the boys did. Or at least that’s what James told Sirius. James had apparently had a few breakfasts with her. So Sirius decided he wanted one also.  
  
He searched around in their floordrobe for clean enough clothes for the day and departed for the showers. He took a cold shower to try and wake himself up but it didn’t work the wonders he thought it would. He yawned in the mirror pulling his fingers through his wet hair to brush out the knots. It worked, his hair never gave him much grief. It didn’t take him long back up in the dorm to chuck his dirty laundry among the rest. Peter was up now.  
  
‘You’re up early.’ Peter noted, rubbing his eyes. ‘Is the world ending?’  
  
‘Depends who’s asking. Besides, I have to commentate the match today.’ And had a girl to join for breakfast. But Peter didn’t need the finer details.  
  
‘I’m not even sure why they still allow you to do that.’ Peter commented, rubbing his eyes and coming around to the end of his bed by the door.  
  
‘I reckon Albus pushes for it. The old guy is brilliant, but kind of losing it.’ Sirius winked at Peter and mussed up his hair as he passed by him, ‘make sure Moony surfaces at  _some_  point.’   
  
‘Ha! Says  _you_.’ Peter snorted as Sirius left the dorm laughing.   
  
Down in the common room there were a few quidditch enthusiasts up and around, but it was mostly pretty deserted. Sirius noticed Ali’s dorm mates close to the portrait hole as he made his way over.  
  
‘No, it’s suspicious. She’s missing  _every_  morning lately.’ One of them said, and it piqued Sirius’s interest.  
  
‘Who?’ He asked coming to a halt and the three girls all jumped at his voice.  
  
‘Oh, good morning Sirius!’ One of them said, fluttering her eyelashes at him behind her thick glasses. She used one of her hands to tend to her full-bodied chocolate curls.  
  
‘Shut up Maria.’ Another whispered, ‘good morning Sirius.’ She repeated and copied her friend’s actions. Sirius knew her to be the most annoying of the sixth year females. However many there were. Was one missing?  
  
‘Who are you talking about?’ Sirius asked again, ignoring their argument with one another.  
  
‘Our friend, Emily.’ The other one answered. She looked almost identical to the annoying one. When Sirius realised they weren’t talking about Ali, he began to tune out.  
  
‘You three don’t know where Ali is, do you?’ He asked, hoping to find some use for them.  
  
The blonde annoying one sighed deeply and rolled her eyes.  
  
‘You’re not  _actually_  serious about dating her, are you? Like, this  _has_  to be some kind of joke? Is she  _paying_  you?’ She asked, folding her arms before her and giving Sirius a very unimpressed show of emotion.   
  
Sirius blinked back at her, ‘are you insinuating I could be  _bought,_  Sally? How dare you. I’m offended. And I am  _always_  serious. It’s my first bloody name. Get some new material. Even your friends are running away from you now.’ Sirius rolled his eyes. He knew girls like this one all too well.   
  
‘She’s down at breakfast already.’ The second blonde spoke up.  
  
‘Bianca!’  
  
‘Oh get over it,  _Sally_. He’s clearly never going to date you.’ She shook her head and Sirius let a laugh loose. He saluted the second blonde and left as a fight broke out between them.  
  
Sirius wanted to get down to the great hall as fast as possible and so he took one of his shortcuts. This particular shortcut took him through a usually deserted corridor on the fifth floor behind a tapestry. Once he got down to it and pushed passed the tapestry, he found himself in a very strange situation. He pulled up short.  
  
‘Oh, Black!’ Mary Macdonald shouted out as she pushed herself off another student Sirius didn’t know the name of. Sirius couldn’t help the mischievous laugh that came forth though, because he started to put together who said student was. Another one of Ali’s dorm mates, the last missing number of the assembly.  
  
‘Uh, Emily?’ Sirius asked as Mary fumbled over words trying to come up with excuses. Emily just nodded happily at Sirius.  
  
‘We were just- we had- we weren’t- oh Jesus, Mary mother of-’ He wasn’t quite sure what Mary was trying to get at, but Sirius knew Mary better than he knew the other one. He’d shared classes with Mary since their first year. Of course they only really began speaking as they got older and his friends dated hers. The only thing that entered his mind about the sight before him was that he now wasn’t the only one dating someone in the grade below. Sirius’s smirk grew.  
  
‘Uh huh. I see.’ Sirius nodded, pretending to agree with Mary’s babbling.  
  
‘Sirius!’ Mary urged, grabbing him and pulling him a little ways away from her tall, simple counterpart, ‘please don’t be a git about this.’   
  
As Mary asked this of him, she stared up at him in horror. It dawned on Sirius that this wasn’t a joking matter and he frowned.  
  
‘I’m not a git.’  
  
‘You absolutely are and you know it.’ Mary reasoned with him and Sirius made an attempt to argue, but fell short with a shrug of partial agreement, partial apathy.   
  
 ‘I might be a git about some stuff, Macdonald. But I’m not about to sell you out about something you clearly want to keep secret. Your raunchy affairs are your own.’ He winked at her, trying not to laugh. Mary sighed.  
  
‘It’s not that- I don’t  _want_  to- I just- just don’t tell Lily or Marls. Please?’ Mary looked back over to Emily, who was watching their exchange quietly from a distance. As Sirius kept his focus on Mary, he saw the look on her face when Emily smiled over at her and waved.  
  
‘Uh, Macdonald?’ Sirius started, ‘not that it’s any of my business. But just letting you know, it’s a lot easier to make out with each other when you’re not trying to hide it from the school. Take it from me.’  
  
‘Shut up Black. You know this is a very different situation from your secret make out sessions thanks to your fear of commitment.’ Mary gave him a look as she secured some of her brown hair behind her ear.  
  
‘How?’ Sirius scoffed, ‘And… I don’t have a fear of commitment. Who are your sources? ‘  
  
‘You and Adams are like, specimen. You’re the most beautiful people to ever date each other… even if Adams is the weirdest girl I’ve ever met. People have been predicting it for years the way she followed you around. It’s not as shocking a development as you think.’ Mary scoffed right back at him, ignoring the latter part of his questions.  
  
‘She’s not weird.’ Sirius mumbled his defence with a scowl. But then he thought about it, ‘okay, she is pretty weird. People thought she liked me?’ Sirius grinned to himself, then shook his head returning to his argument, ‘not the point. Even if you don’t want to kiss dopey over there in front of a bunch of Slytherin’s-‘  
  
‘She’s not dopey.’  
  
‘-at least give your friends the benefit of the doubt. Friends are the most important thing you have here. And, possibly, in your entire life. If you don’t trust your friends, then you’re an idiot Macdonald.’ Sirius shrugged and glanced back over to the pretty girl waiting for Mary.  
  
‘Get back to her. She looks lost. I won’t tell a soul.’ Sirius agreed holding his right hand up for Mary to take. For a second she just stared at him, but then realised the symbolism. She clasped his right hand in her own in a mock version of the unbreakable vow.   
  
‘Thanks, Black.’ Mary smiled at him, ‘Adams has made you soft.’ Before Sirius was able to spark up a debate to recall the last remark, Mary dropped her grip on him and left to return to Emily. As Mary slipped her hand into Emily’s, Sirius took that as his queue to move along. If he was yawning before, he was certainly awake now.  
  
Nothing better to wake you up in the morning than accidentally barging in on a secret snog session. Sirius found himself grinning as he continued on his path down to the great hall. Maybe Mary was right. Maybe being with Ali  _had_  made him soft. As he entered the great hall there were more people around than on a usual Saturday morning. Quidditch had adrenalin in the air. He quickly scanned the table and saw the familiar honey coloured curls he had come to revere. He made his way to the end of the table where Ali sat, alone.  
  
‘Morning.’ He bent down to whisper in her ear then chuckled when she jumped out of her seat in fright.  
  
‘Sirius!’ She smacked him, looking back at the pumpkin juice now renting a space in her muggle studies text.  
  
‘What are you reading?’ He settled into a seat beside her as she pulled out her wand, attempting to reverse the damage.  
  
‘Home life and social habits of British muggles.’ She recited and Sirius shook his head.  
  
‘What are you reading the muggle studies text for? You’re not even  _in_  muggle studies.’ Sometimes Sirius just could not wrap his head around her.   
  
‘Yeah, well, I can’t take  _all_  the electives, Sirius.’ She laughed at him then suddenly sobered, ‘McGonagall recommended against it in third year when I asked.’ She just stared blankly ahead like some kind of injustice had been done to her and Sirius had to cover his mouth to stop himself laughing.  
  
‘But, reading the texts gives me some knowledge at least. Muggles are  _fascinating_. Don’t you think?’ She turned to him, awe etched on her face. Sirius didn’t answer right away. He took a moment to just watch her.   
  
She started to explain one of the studies from the book about the muggle schooling system. She spoke so fast when she was engaged with something. Sirius just rested his chin in his hand and gazed on. He had never felt so strongly for a girl. There wasn’t a thing about her that even slightly offended him.   
  
He liked her vigour for knowledge. She was so passionate about so many things. It was one of her qualities Sirius wished he shared. Mostly he found himself apathetic towards a lot. He liked her little nose and her ever-changing eyes. When they were in the sun, her eyes were the most brilliant shade of green, they almost looked yellow. But then at times they were most certainly blue. It was her quirks that drew Sirius to her more and more, every day.  
  
As she spoke, she flicked her head and hands around and her curls moved from side to side and Sirius had the urge to reach out and runs his hands through them. He loved doing that. Her hair felt like silk. But she never appreciated it. She said it ruined her hair and hit him. But he liked that, too. It made him laugh.   
  
‘Don’t you think that’s charming? Their schooling ends up being- well-‘ she started counting on her fingers, frowning to herself in thought. That was another thing Sirius liked about Ali. She was  _not_  quick, or bright. But boy was she  _determine_. ‘-it could be up to  _eighteen_  years! How ridiculous! Gosh I wish we had school for that long.’ Sirius got through his life easily in the ways of intelligence. It almost came to him naturally. He realised it when he got to school and the students around the class took weeks longer to pick things up than he did.   
  
Even though she was not gifted with effortless intellect, she made sure she was well read. He literally knew  _no_ other girls their age that passed up  _every_  social escapade for school work. And yet, with such a past, she still managed to slowly mould her schedule to fit him in also. And it dawned on him, just how lucky he was. He smiled at her as she continued.  
  
‘Do you know how to stop learning?’ He asked, reaching out to grab some food from around them.  
  
‘Why would you ever stop learning? You’d essentially be dead.’ Ali gave him a face that all but said “really Sirius”. Sirius did his best to hide the smile on his face by looking down at his food. He didn’t know whether or not he liked what was happening to him. He was developing a  _deep_  attachment for the book crazed girl before him. He didn’t know how wise that was.   
  
‘Why have you been getting up so early?’ Sirius asked, curious. It also distracted him from the place his mind was wandering.  
  
‘What?’ Ali looked up at him vaguely, ‘oh, it- it’s just easier.’ She shrugged.  
  
‘How so?’ Anything that got Sirius out of bed before eight am was not his definition of  _easier_.  
  
‘It’s easier to avoid unwanted attention. Don’t look into it. How about you? It’s strange to see you coherent before noon on a Saturday.’  
  
‘Well I wanted to see you.’ It just kind of fell out of his mouth. He felt instantly stupid about it and even winced from the slight graze of embarrassment. He looked up to Ali expecting her to have some deadpanned look on her face speaking her level of unimpressed sentiments.  
  
But she was not frowning. Or deadpanned. She looked shy and appreciative as she screwed up her nose in thought. She quickly looked around them, checking the coast. Then she lent forwards and touched her lips to Sirius’s cheek before drawing back quickly. She just smiled at him for a moment afterwards before they both turned their attention back to their breakfasts and ate quietly, in a content silence.   
  
Sirius even felt Ali shuffle a little to be closer to him. And after that he almost felt a pang in his chest for he knew Ali to deter pretty much any, if not all, kinds of contact with other human beings. It was dangerous, dangerous territory he was crossing over into. If there was one thing Sirius Black was, it was loyal. There was a reason he only had three real friends at Hogwarts. And it wasn’t for a lack of others trying to worm their way into his circle.   
  
Once Sirius Black formed an attachment, it was for life. It was more than just his laugh that tied him to his animagus form. Sirius knew he would have dived in front of an unforgivable curse for James, Remus or Peter. His baby brother was another one of those attachments, even if Regulus refused to acknowledge him. Sirius’s caring didn’t die out just because of a lack of shared words. With every day spent with the neurotic teenager beside him, he felt his attachment towards her growing. She was arguably ridiculous. But that’s what Sirius had come to like about her.   
  
It was when the two of them were finished their eggs and toast that Sirius recognised a familiar owl entering the hall. It flew in and landed in front of the pair quite gracefully. It was the Adams family owl. Ali reached out and brushed the backs of her fingers down his front as he stood tall before them.  
  
‘Thanks Saph.’ Ali offered the majestic looking creature the ends of her toast after retrieving the letter tied to his leg. He took it happily, tucking right in.  
  
‘Saph?’ Sirius queried.  
  
Ali sighed, ‘It’s short for  _Sapphire_. Tucker named him. He believes him “regal as a shining gemstone”. And that he should have been named accordingly.’ Sirius realised after she had finished speaking that her sigh was not about her brother’s choice of names for the family owl, but at the letter he had brought with him.  
  
‘I really like your brother.’ Sirius mumbled thinking of the crazy little kid.  
  
‘Yeah, he’s perfect.’ Ali laughed a little looking over the letter.  
  
‘Everything okay?’ Sirius asked when Ali didn’t launch into a fully detailed version of why she loved her brother and how wonderful he was. He had gotten caught in those drawn out chats twice since they had started dating.  
  
‘Huh? Oh. Yeah. It’s just-‘ she fell short. She seemed distracted this morning, ‘-it’s my mum. I feel terrible. We haven’t spoken at all since the platform when I yelled at her. Dad keeps me updated.’ She waved the letter around unenthusiastically.   
  
‘It’s not the nicest feeling to have in the pit of your stomach.’ Sirius spoke up, coming to a conclusion, ‘Feeling like you let a family member down. Leaving and not having a chance to patch things up. I understand.’   
  
‘It  _sucks_.’ Ali let forth a massive sigh as Sapphire took the liberty of dipping into her juice. ‘I just want to write to her. But I feel terrible. I want to apologise to her face, you know?’ Sirius nodded his agreement at her. He then reached out and pulled her into a side hug, rubbing her arm and placing a kiss to her forehead.  
  
‘I think, even if it’s not face to face, you’ll both feel better if you write to her.’ Sirius suggested as Sapphire spread out his large wings and prepared for take-off. The large eagle owl managed to leave everything as it was after beating his wings and soaring up out of the great hall.  
  
‘You know, Black. You’re not bad.’ Ali said, resting her head against his shoulder.  
  
‘Whoa. Don’t get sentimental on me.’ Sirius joked as Ali smacked him playfully.  
  
‘I’ll write her a letter after the game.’  
  
‘You’re coming then?’ Sirius had to smile. He wasn’t sure she would have braved the masses just for quidditch.  
  
‘Ugh, I hate quidditch.’ Her words reassured him he knew her pretty well, ‘but some hot shot is commentating and I guess he’s okay. He’s kind of funny. Maybe.’ She shrugged against him.  
  
‘Kind of?  _Maybe?_ I’m  _hilarious_. And captivating. I could be a public speaker for the minister’s department.’  
  
‘You  _suck_.’ Ali gave a daring little chuckle as she sat up and looked at him. Sirius had a glint in his eye as he gave her a few moments to bask in her glory before his fingers connected with her waist and she was screaming out in protest to his tickling.   
  
After breakfast, the pair of them made their way up the stairs to the common room to meet up with the Remus and Peter. James would have been beating his team into shape, so they didn’t bother checking on him. When they entered the common room, Sirius felt the usual stares on them. It had been rather apparent since Sirius had kissed Ali on the train that they were the  _hot_  topic for gossip. But they both seemed to be doing an excellent job of ignoring it.  
  
‘Uh, are Remus and McKinnon still partaking in a vow of silence towards one another?’ Ali asked him, and Sirius directed his attention to the spot she was watching. Remus was coming down the stairs behind Peter and Lily was currently doing the same with Marlene. They both stood frozen for a moment, watching the scene unfold.   
  
Sirius looked to his side at Ali who turned her face up towards his.  
  
‘Should we…’ Sirius started, thinking on it.  
  
‘What?’ Ali asked, clueless as always.  
  
‘We should.’ Sirius nodded.  
  
‘What?’ Ali’s faced showed her intense confusion. Sirius just nodded as if she was completely on board and grabbed her hand, pulling her over to where Lily and Peter were now both looking at Remus and Marlene, who had come face to face and the bottom of the stairs.  
  
‘Uh- sorry.’ Remus said, looking away.  
  
‘You can stop saying that, you know.’ Marlene muttered, looking less like herself than ever, with her withdrawn sadness very evidently.  
  
‘Okay troops! Glad we’ve all assembled!’ Sirius announced, drawing all four of their attention onto him. ‘So I’ve decided you’re all to take up residence in the staff box today. I need all hands on deck.’  
  
‘For what?’ Peter asked, quizzical but intrigued.  
  
‘Why, for shaming Potter of course. We have to bring that kid down to size. He’s parading around like he singlehandedly won the cup for Gryffindor last year. We’re going to heckle him.  _Heckle him with force_!’ Sirius said, shaking a fist before him with the injustice of the situation.  
  
‘Sirius, you’re not… serious?’ Lily asking, giggling a little at her own words.  
  
‘Yes, Evans. That’s my name. Honestly, I thought you would have come to terms with that by now. Okay, so we’re going to need a banner. I want it reading “Captain of troll dung”. Lily, you can whip that up with Peter, can’t you? Make it flash with really loud colours. I want  _everyone_  seeing this. Uh, Ali-‘ Sirius turned to her and she looked utterly bewildered. He tried not to laugh.  
  
‘I need you working with them to enchant jerseys for all of us. Think of something witty. Like, er, Pansy Potter. Or something.’ Ali looked like she was about to protest, so Sirius launched into the final piece. ‘Uh, so that leaves you two. Moony can you and McKinnon come up with some chants? I want some class act heckling. I want him utterly distracted and rightly peeved. Ah! Peeves! You two go find Peeves to help you. He’s great at it. Yeah?’  
  
All five of his friends stared back at him like his head had been hit with an engorgio charm.   
  
‘Well what are you waiting for?’ Sirius snapped and Remus looked at Marlene.  
  
Marlene sighed, ‘come on then.’ She walked by Sirius and Ali, and Remus started to follow. He gave Sirius a very confused look as he passed them, but said nothing.  
  
‘Sirius, what on earth?’ Lily was smiling.  
  
‘Listen, they need to at least start talking to each other again, even if they don’t get back together.’ Sirius shrugged.  
  
‘So it’s all just to get them talking?’ Lily asked, while a highly confused Ali huddled over with Peter, and whispered to him.  
  
‘No. Are you nuts? We’re definitely doing this. Heckling James is my favourite thing.’ Sirius admitted with a smirk and Lily burst into laughter as a form of agreement on the matter.   
  
‘They’re insane.’ Sirius heard Ali whisper to Peter and Peter just nodded along with her.   
  
As the day progressed, Sirius oversaw all the preparations and they got everything done just in time for the game. There were a few of their professors absent and Dumbledore happily welcomed them all into the box after Sirius let him in on the plan. The match continued on for hours as James kept laughing at them all and almost falling off his broom mid-pursuit down the pitch, quaffle under his arm. Sirius was content, making ridiculous calls as the commentator, with Ali beside him. She sat with Peter through the game and they seemed to be getting to know each other better, and she was laughing a lot at Peter’s jokes. It made Sirius happy that she was being accepted so fully by his friends. He wasn’t sure why he ever worried about it.  
  
Lily was to his other side, and Marlene and Remus were beside her. Marlene and Remus, as Sirius had planned, were talking again. It seemed stunted, and a little awkward. But it was progress.   
  
In the end, Gryffindor managed to win over Hufflepuff by two hundred and twenty points when little Erin Davies caught the snitch for them. This bumped them up from their loss at the start of the year to Slytherin and put them back in the running for the house cup. James was so happy over the win, he landed in the staff box and put on the spare ‘Pansy Potter’ jerseys and scooped Lily up, kissing her in his arms.  
  
They all celebrated furiously back up in the Gryffindor common room, until at nine Remus and Ali had to disappear for round duties and that’s when Sirius decided the party had gotten ‘less fun’ and left the rest of the students to their vices and ventured up to the dorm with Peter.  
  
‘I really like Adams, Sirius. She’s great.’ Peter spoke up with a great smile on his face, as the two of them changed into their pyjamas.  
  
Sirius looked over at Peter to gauge his statement more fully.  
  
He nodded, ‘she’s pretty unique.’ He agreed, ‘Don’t you go falling in love with her. She’s my woman.’ Sirius warned, pointing a finger at him.  
  
‘I’m not going to fall in love with her.’ Peter huffed, frowning. ‘I just mean, she’s nice to me. And she’s really smart. She told me she’d teach me some defensive spells if the Slytherin’s kept bothering me.’  
  
Sirius laughed, ‘if only you knew.’ He was thinking of just how hard Ali’s father must have tried to teach her those defensive spells. It would have been torture. As he was laughing though, a thought he had buried away since the night of the attack on the castle came floating back to him.  
  
‘Oh  _shit_! I forgot about the secret society! We have to interrogate her for any information!’ Sirius announced as Peter jumped in shock, halfway through getting under his covers. He fell to the floor with a plonk and Sirius barked a laugh at his expense.


	55. Digging deeper

Ali was sitting in a corner of the Gryffindor common room alone, trying to get some peace and quiet. There was a raging party going on around her for James Potter’s eighteen birthday party. Ali protested the idea initially. The seventh year’s NEWTs were coming up. They  _should_  have been studying.  _She_  was preparing for them, how could they not be? James was also a rotten, jerk of a friend that teased her  _relentlessly_. He didn’t  _deserve_ a party…  
  
Alright, she didn’t truly believe that. But that’s certainly what she said to him when he proposed the idea a week ago, asking if she’d attend. Lily and James had stepped up the public displays of affection about thirty thousand fold over the past few weeks and Ali was finding them hard to be around. But she adored Lily, and James was…  _okay_. So she was enduring it all. She looked up from her homework and saw Anna Cox glaring at her. It was pretty common these days to find her doing that. Her minions weren’t trying as hard to please her anymore, and Bianca and Maria had even started being what could be considered  _nice_  to Ali.   
  
Ali looked Anna dead in the eye and mouthed “get over it” and gave her a fake smile to deliver the final blow. Of course she wasn’t taking Bianca and Maria’s newfound kindness to heart. They were just being nice because Ali was currently in the social spotlight for dating Sirius. It was ridiculous and she didn’t want it at all. If she didn’t find her affections for Sirius growing every day, she would most certainly dump him and the spotlight his stupid, beautiful face brought with him.  
  
Just as Anna started to shake with anger, ready to rise from her seat and march over to Ali, Sirius appeared out of nowhere.  
  
‘ _Aliiiiiiiiiiii_.’ He whined.   
  
‘No!’ She snapped instantly.  
  
‘ _Aaaaaalllllliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii_!’ He whimpered, getting to his knees before her armchair and placing his chin in her lap.  
  
‘For Pete’s sake, Sirius! No! I’m not telling you anything about it.’ It had been over two weeks of this. Ever since the morning after the quidditch match, Sirius had been nagging her for information on Dumbledore’s secret society. How he’d even managed to remember such a minute detail from that night with the chaos going on around them was beside her.  
  
‘Why  _not_?’ He sat back and stared at her, looking irritated.  
  
Ali laughed, ‘are you shitty with me?’  
  
‘For someone so well-read, you’ve got a pretty dirty mouth, you know that?’ Sirius raised a brow at her, still trying to look angry.  
  
‘I  _do_  know that. You can thank my father for that ladylike trait. I mean, if you ever dare to come face to face with him again that is.’ She smirked and reached forward to grab another of her textbooks for a reference. As she grabbed it, Sirius hit it out of her hand and it fell to the floor.  
  
‘Sirius!’ She looked up at him for an explanation but he just pouted at her.  
  
‘I’m just going to be really annoying until you tell me.’   
  
‘You’re already really annoying. It can’t get much worse.’ She replied. As she got used to being around Sirius, she found not only her boundaries and guards lowering, but also her cheek rising. As she turned to face him the look on his face was too much for her to handle. She started to laugh. She reached out and pushed him and he fell back onto his hands and smiled.  
  
‘ _Ali_!’ He tried to sound authoritative, but he was still laughing and smiling at her from his collapsed position on the floor.  
  
‘Piss off you pest. Go and gallivant around the party, you’re not getting any information out of me.’ She said, reaching down to pick up her fallen textbook and looking it over to see if it suffered any damage.  
  
‘Why do you have to be so  _rule_  abiding?’ Sirius asked as he stood up.  
  
‘It is a  _secret_  society, Sirius. How  _secret_  would it be if I went around telling every Tom, Dick and Harry about it?’  
  
‘My name is  _Sirius_. Not Tom, Dick,  _or_  Harry. How many times do I have to tell you that? You think you’d remember your own boyfriend’s name.’ Sirius rolled his eyes and shook his head in mock exasperation as he lent down towards her.  
  
‘Shut up.’ Ali laughed. Sirius smiled at her, and placed a kiss to the corner of her mouth. It still made Ali’s chest warm up, even though they had been dating just over three months now. She wondered if this heightened affection even died down? Judging from her parents, she expected probably not.   
  
‘Have you written that letter to your mum yet?’ Sirius asked, drawing back. It was as if he had read her mind.  
  
Ali groaned, ‘…yes.’  
  
‘You have not!’  
  
‘Shut up!’  
  
‘Ali, write the damn letter!’  
  
‘I have!’  
  
‘Liar!’  
  
‘Ugh! Okay! I haven’t.’ She gave in as Sirius shook his head down at her.  
  
‘Being stubborn isn’t going to make this any better. Just say you’re sorry.’  
  
‘She’s being stubborn, too!’ Ali argued. She had tried to write her mother an apology time and time again since Sirius had suggested it, but her silly pride kept getting in the way.  
  
‘You’re acting like a kid, you know that, right?’ Sirius looked down at her, ‘sometimes I forget you’re so much younger than us.’  
  
Ali’s jaw dropped, ‘I’m sixteen and a half, Sirius.’  
  
Sirius started to laugh, covering his face with his hand, ‘that, right there, only proves how juvenile you are.’ After his remark however, Sirius had to duck as a textbook flew directly at his head. When it missed him and hit the wall behind him, Ali squeaked in worry.  
  
Sirius just laughed loudly and walked away to join James and the others in their loud party endeavours.   
  
‘Stupid know-it-all.’ Ali muttered to herself as she retrieved her book. The noise level of the party had driven Snowball into retreat hours ago. Regardless of what she may have said to him, she knew he was right. For the first time in her life, Ali had opted to stay at Hogwarts over a school break. It was  _very_ out of character for her.  
  
She was still not on talking terms with her mother, and frankly still a little angry about what she had said. True she didn’t mean the bad words she had said against Kanika. But her parents were being unfair. She was a model student. She was a  _prefect_. She had the highest grades in nearly all of her classes. Her teachers all sang her praises. What more did she  _want_? She had to make a fool of her at the station? In front of _veryone_? Mothers were so  _embarrassing_.  
  
And coming to conclusions that she was going to jump into tricky situations with Sirius was downright rude. Ali wasn’t naïve. She knew how babies were made. She had read a plethora of healer’s books on biology and the human body. She  _knew._ And she certainly did  _not_  want one any time soon. She had a career to think about! And besides. She wasn’t ready for any of that. And Sirius was a gentlemen! …mostly.   
  
All it came down to was – well, she was being stubborn. Just like Sirius had said. She wanted more than anything to apologise to Kanika. But she wanted an apology first! So she kept putting off her letter. She would write it, then rip it up and get frustrated and have to read a textbook to calm herself down. So for now she gave up on it.   
  
And as it came up to the holidays, and she thought she best write it, James came to her and asked if she would stay. The Easter weekend this year fell on James Potter’s birthday. And when James had come around, asking everyone to stay over the holiday for an extravagant birthday bash, Ali found it the best way to procrastinate her need to apologise even further, and accepted the request to stay behind.   
  
She missed her family terribly. But she wrote to her father explaining about the birthday invitation and he had replied with a ‘have fun Ali-bear! Keep your wand close in case anyone tries anything funny though. Men are monsters!’ To which Ali rolled her eyes. And at the end Tucker had scribbled a ‘love you nerd!’ in florescent glitter ink.    
  
Ali looked around at the people enjoying themselves. James was currently invading Sirius’s personal space and Sirius was laughing at him. Lily was sitting with Marlene, who looked to be a little higher in spirits lately. Remus was among them, but Peter seemed to be absent, as was Mary.  
  
Ali almost contemplated going up to the dorm, tiring of the noise herself now. But just as the thought crossed her mind, she saw Anna Cox huffing an exasperated breath and getting to her feet from where she was sitting with some of the quidditch team players. Anna threw her arms down and stormed off to the girls’ staircase as Ali stifled a laugh.  
  
Since Sirius had kissed her on the train, Ali had weathered a fair amount of taunting from other students. Mostly she ignored it, unless she felt like retaliating and shutting them down. But usually the taunts were pretty mild, and didn’t cause her a great deal of grief. But now that she and Sirius had been together in the public eye for a full term, people were beginning to tire of the diminutive reactions she gave them. Now something else entirely was starting to happen, and she liked it even  _less_.  
  
‘Hey Ali.’ A fifth year girl walked by and waved to her. Ali felt a groan escaping her tightly pressed lips at those two words. Last year, most people weren’t even sure how to pronounce her name. Now suddenly they all knew her nickname. And  _insisted_  on using it for no apparent reason. It was infuriating. She tried to forget it, and returned to her reading. A few more minutes passed by and another student stopped to hover beside her.  
  
‘Hey Ali. Are you doing homework?’   
  
Ali looked to her right at this newcomer. It was a third year boy. Ali sighed, knowing full well it would be cruel to be rude to a thirteen year old.  
  
‘Yes. I am.’ She replied, turning back to her book.  
  
‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to bother you. You’re just… you’re just so awesome. I just wanted to let you know. You’re really awesome.’   
  
A little shocked at being called ‘awesome’ more than once, if at all, Ali turned to look at the boy to see if this was some kind of prank. She stared at him, and his shy smile gave him away. He was being  _honest_. He smiled awkwardly, nodded his head to her and started to walk off.  
  
‘U-uh.. thank you!’ She called out to his retreating figure. He turned around briefly to wave and continued on. Ali just sat, a little shocked, and blinking. When she looked around, a few more students were watching her. They smiled and waved at her also and that’s where Ali drew the line. It was all too weird. Most of these students had ignored her from day one. This was not natural.  
  
She collected up her things and made for the stairs. As she got to the bottom, she remembered Anna and sighed. She looked to her right at the boys’ staircase and pondered it. She gave a quick shrug once her decision was made and started to climb the staircase up to the boys’ dorm. She looked around once she reached the boys level and no one was to be seen. She quietly opened the door and disappeared inside.   
  
When she turned around after quietly shutting the door she realised the room was not empty as she had expected it to be.   
  
‘Oh, sorry Peter! I thought you were down at the party.’ She apologised. Peter, who was perched on his bed looking at Ali curiously, just shook his head.  
  
‘It’s okay. You can come in. Are you waiting for Padfoot?’ He asked. Ali made her way over to his bed to see what he was doing, before replying. It looked as if he was reading up on his NEWTs practicals.   
  
‘Uh, oh. No. He’s downstairs. I just wanted a bit of quiet and my dorm is currently occupied with some less that friendly members. Are you studying?’  
  
‘Huh? Oh. Yeah. I’m… I’m just a bit worried. I’m not as smart as the boys. They all seem to get things in class, whereas I have to try a lot harder.’ Peter shrugged.  
  
‘Oh, me too. It’s frustrating how smart Sirius is.’ Ali felt her upper lip twitch just thinking about it. Stupid Black and his enormous brain power.  
  
‘Tell me about it. Sometimes I want to hit them in class. “Oh, haven’t you gotten that spell down yet Wormtail? You just do this. See?” Ah, no. I don’t see, actually. Show offs.’ Peter allowed a grumpy pout to settle on his face as he looked down at his books. It made Ali giggle. At her little outburst, Peter looked up at her strangely. Almost as if he was wondering if she was laughing at him. Upon inspection, as he realised she was merely laughing at his statement, he smiled at her.  
  
‘I can completely agree with you there. Stupid know it all. Thinks he’s the master of all things spell related.’ Ali muttered thinking about Sirius’s gruelling transfiguration lessons and the way he just seemed to master things within minutes that took her hours if not days.  
  
‘The worst part though is that they all  _are_. Well, Prongs and Padfoot seem to be naturally advanced. Moony does have to try, but barely. He’s a genius in his own way.’  
  
‘You know, I’ve always wondered something Peter.’ Ali frowned at him, hitching her books up in her arms. ‘What in Merlin’s name are those  _nicknames_?’  
  
Peter laughed, covering his mouth with his hand. ‘You honestly don’t want to know.’ He smiled, looking down at his NEWT book. After a moment he sighed and Ali decided something.  
  
‘Would you like some help? I mean, I’m not a genius. But I study hard. And it sounds like we’re both quite similar in that way. I might be a more useful guide than the others?’ She smiled at the pudgy boy before her, as his face lit up at her offer.  
  
‘Really? You’d do that, for me?’  
  
‘Of course! I love magic. Any time I can read about it or practice it, I will. Especially if it’s helping someone else.’ They smiled at one another and Peter shuffled over on his bed to make room for her. Ali settled in, dumping her books down and launching into methods of study first. She had already started practising for her own NEWTs, so none of the subject matter was new to her.  
  
As they chatted, Ali started to realise what a sweet boy Peter was. He was slow, and skittish, but he was quiet and kindly and he listened to everything Ali had to say about charms practice. It was Ali’s best subject, so she had a lot to offer on it. Neither of them seemed to slow down or realise the time until the dorm door creaked open and Remus wandered in.   
  
‘What are you two up to in here? I believe Sirius is looking for you Ali.’ He smirked at his discovery and made his way over to the foot of Peter’s bed.   
  
‘I’m sure he is.’ Ali grinned knowing her hiding place was probably fool proof. Why would Sirius come looking for her in his own dorm?  
  
‘Adams is helping me with some revision.’ Peter said as he practised the precise wand movement Ali had been teaching him.  
  
‘She’s very switched on, isn’t she.’ Remus smiled at Ali, seeing the kindness she had shown him last year being bestowed on Peter now.   
  
‘She’s a much better teacher than Prongs or Padfoot, that’s for sure.’ Peter nodded still practising the movement.   
  
‘If you keep at it, you’ll surely pass your charms NEWT. I can help you with the others, too. I don’t mind.’ As Ali was finishing her sentence, the dorm door burst open and James and Sirius fell through the doorway laughing loudly.  
  
‘I won!’  
  
‘Shut up Padfoot, I was clearly in first! Moony! Who won!?’ The two boys looked up from their position on the floor, over at Remus, Peter and Ali.  
  
‘Hey. What’s going on here? Why are you on Wormtail’s bed? Treachery!’ Sirius scrambled up and bounded over to them, tackling both Ali and Peter down on the bed. James just laughed, getting to his feet and joining Remus at the foot of the bed.  
  
‘What is going  _on_  in here?’ Lily’s voice interrupted Ali and Peter’s cries of dispute over being laid upon.  
  
‘Wormtail’s trying to scam Sirius’s lady right under his nose! It’s now a battle to the death.’ James explained as Lily joined them in the dorm.  
  
‘Shut up, she was just helping me study.’ Peter cried, pushing Sirius off him.  
  
‘That’s what they all say.’ Sirius shook his head, sitting up and staring at Ali and Peter.  
  
‘Push off you mongrel.’ Ali glared at Sirius and kicked him off the bed. With that the entire dorm burst into laughter while Ali got to her feet and stood above Sirius. As he sat up, rubbing his back, he looked up to see her smiling above him and joined in the rest of the laughter.  
  
‘Right, well you’re mine now. Study can wait.’ Sirius got to his feet and scooped Ali into his arms.  
  
‘Sirius! Put me  _down_!’   
  
‘Nein.’   
  
‘Sirius!’  
  
‘Non.’ Sirius just laughed as he carried his lady over to his bed and dropped her down. She gave him a menacing frown which Sirius ignored as he climbed onto the sheet-lacking mattress and kissed her. There were groans from all around them from the other inhabitants of the dorm so Sirius pulled away.  
  
‘Don’t act like you’re not enjoying the show, lads. Lily I could teach James a few new moves for you? It would certainly spice things up.’   
  
‘He knows enough, thanks.’  
  
‘Yeah, I know enough!’ James mimicked in a mocking tone. ‘Wait… enough? That doesn’t sound satisfied. Get over here!’ James yanked Lily over to his bed while Sirius and Lily laughed at his expense. Sirius then pulled the drapes shut around his bed while the attention was momentarily off he and Ali.  
  
‘Sirius. They’ll get ideas…’ Ali spoke quietly, looking a little concerned as Sirius shuffled closer to her.  
  
‘Let them. I just want to lay here with you for a bit.’ As he presented her with a sweet smile, Ali knew she couldn’t argue such an innocent request. Lily was up here with James, so it wasn’t that bad.   
  
‘Well, at least get some pillows for us then.’ She rolled her eyes, trying to feign nonchalance, when really she was still quite happy over the fact that someone she was developing such deep feelings for, was reciprocating. It certainly didn’t always happen this way. She knew she was lucky.   
  
Sirius located a couple of pillows and pulled a blanket up from the side of the bed and laid back with his arms behind his head.   
  
‘Did you enjoy yourselves down there?’ Ali asked, placing her head down beside his, but choosing to lay on her side to have a better view of him.  
  
‘Yeah. It was okay.’ Sirius explained some of the funnier things that happened while Ali had been helping Peter. She smiled at a few of the stories while they listened to the rest of the boys and Lily chatting away beyond the drapes. There was a lot of laughter for at least an hour, until things began to quiet down around their conversation. Remus could be heard getting into bed, and Peter was already under his blankets a while ago. Lily, it sounded, was trying to get James to calm down, but was laughing loudly at his jokes and wasn’t doing the best job.   
  
A few times Ali and Sirius listened in on them and laughed softly at Lily’s “James for heaven’s sake,  _calm down_ ” followed by her own laughter. As the dorm grew steadily more silent, and James and Lily were the only voices left speaking at the same decibel Sirius and Ali were, Ali yawned.  
  
‘I should probably get going.’ She reached up and rubbed one of her eyes as it began to sting from tiredness.   
  
‘Not just yet.’ Sirius shuffled and turned onto his side, so their faces were but centimetres apart. He smiled at her in such an innocent way Ali felt her heart rate pick up. His eyes seemed to just be scanning over her features, and he reached out and pulled a few of her curls through his fingers. Even though she knew those curls would now be on the frizzier side, she couldn’t bring herself to chastise him. He seemed so content.  
  
She propped herself up on her elbow suddenly, and reach down to his lips to place a kiss over them. It was light, and fleeting, but as she drew back, Sirius reached up and pulled her back down. He pushed himself into more of an upright position and pulled her body to rest over his own, claiming her lips over and over again. She could feel him smiling through their kisses and laughed, just a little.  
  
‘What’s funny?’ Sirius asked, pulling back to look at her.  
  
‘You.’  
  
‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’  
  
‘Alright.’ She shrugged, lowering her lips down to kiss his neck. Sirius seemed to lose any words after that. He arched his back, basking in the contact and Ali did her best to imitate the way he kissed her like this. She had gone from terribly inexperienced, to rather confident since they had started dating. Snogging was one thing Sirius was  _very_ good at coaching.   
  
One of his hands reached up to delve into her hair gently, while the second travelled down her side and rested on her outer thigh. As she trailed her tongue lightly from the bottom of his ear, down the curve of his jaw and let out a warm breath, Sirius’s second hand moved into a place it never had before. It moved so effortlessly to the inside of her thigh, easily bypassing the casual baby blue dress she had on and touching a part of her body that had never before been touched by foreign hands, brushing the elastic of her knickers along the way.   
  
Ali’s eyes snapped open and she sat up so quickly she almost fell off the bed.  
  
‘Whoa! Sorry! Sorry!’ Sirius whispered, pulling her back over to safety. ‘I just, I wasn’t thinking, sorry.’ He pulled his hands up in defence as the two sat opposite one another, Ali looking very flustered.  
  
‘I-’ Ali started, but found herself lost. Her heart was beating so fast, she could hear it over the silence around them. It felt as if her heart was pounding so hard, it was forcing the blood to rush to the place Sirius’s hand had just left. She had never felt this way. Her head was spinning. It sounded as if even James and Lily were down and out by this point, ‘I’m sorry. I’m- I’m just-’ Ali shook her head and closed her eyes.  
  
‘Hey, no. It’s fine. I’m the one that’s sorry. You-’ Sirius laughed a little, ‘You just made me forget where I was when you did that… I’m sorry. Lay back down?’  
  
Ali stared at Sirius, her eyes wide as saucers. She was breathing deeply through her nose and holding her dress down at her mid things while sitting on her feet. She swallowed as Sirius watched her, looking guilty. She nodded as her breathing evened out and the heat between her thighs began to subside. She quietly shuffled back over to him.  
  
They laid down, opposite one another, and Sirius raised his hands up to his chest.  
  
‘I won’t move them from here. I promise.’ He looked as if he were highly amused and doing his best not to show it.  
  
Ali frowned, ‘I’m not ready for that.’  
  
‘I know.’  
  
‘I’m just- I’m younger than you. I don’t have a lot of experience with this stuff.’  
  
‘I know.’ Sirius nodded, still smirking.  
  
‘Stop  _smirking_. It’s not  _funny_.’ Ali hit him on his shoulder, giving him her very best angry face. It only served to make Sirius laugh as silently as he could manage.  
  
‘I’m sorry. I know. I won’t do it again… without permission.’ He ended his sentence with a nod like he was definitely okay with that as an answer.  
  
‘Sirius?’ Sirius hummed a reply to let her know he was listening, ‘Have you? I mean… have you… done it? Before?’ She found herself unable to look at him as she asked this, and focused on his hands and chest instead.   
  
‘Uh, yeah.’ Sirius replied casually, ‘Once. But that doesn’t mean you have to rush into it. I’m happy where we are.’  
  
It was a simple reply. A comforting one also. But strangely, Ali didn’t feel overly comforted by it. Instead she felt strange. Almost a little angry. Why on earth was she angry? She tried not to frown, but it was difficult. She was angry that Sirius had slept with another girl? Was she jealous?  
  
‘Who?’ She had no idea why she would ask such a question. Did she really  _want_  to know that? Why couldn’t she stop frowning?  
  
‘Uh.’ Sirius hesitated looking at her, ‘it doesn’t matter Ali. Honestly, I don’t think you’d even know her. She left school two years ago.’  
  
‘I might know her.’ She pushed for an answer for reasons she was unaware of. Why would she want to know? What would it prove? Why was she doing this?  
  
Sirius stared at her for a moment and his face was bland. It didn’t suit such handsome features to look so lifeless and dejected.  
  
‘Ali, I’d honestly rather not talk about it. It’s not a fond memory. I was fifteen and she was seventeen. It was after a quidditch match when everyone was getting particularly rowdy. She sort of cornered me. And I didn’t really want to do it. But she kept saying all these sly little things, digs at my “manhood” or something.’ Sirius seemed to tense up a little at the thought. But then he shut his eyes and took a deep breath.  
  
‘It’s just, it’s not something I’m proud of or particularly want to recall. Ever.’  
  
Ali felt her upper lip twitching. The jealously wasn’t gone, it had just taken a backseat to something more important. Anger. She wanted to know this girls name even more now so if she passed her in Diagon Alley she could hex her.   
  
She hadn’t really expected Sirius to be unexperienced. He was Sirius Black. So many occupants of the school followed him around like a bad smell. She was witnessing firsthand what taking him off the market did. People were angry with her. People were trying to befriend her. Sirius Black made people do some very questionable things.  
  
Ali had to stop herself thrice from demanding to know the girl’s name. She wanted to get it out of Sirius purely to hunt to girl down. But as she looked on at the quiet form of the beautiful boy before her, she realised it would probably have been best just to drop it. To change the subject.   
  
‘I haven’t. Before. Done…  _it_. That is.’ Ali blinked at her terribly worded sentence. When she refocused on Sirius he was smiling at her.  
  
‘I figured as much.’ He reached forward and kissed her and suddenly her inner turmoil subsided, ‘don’t worry about that stuff. I’m just happy having you here. We can just lay here like this, and I’ll be happy.’  
  
Ali looked down at his hands again, and pulled hers up and interlaced them with his own, moving in close to him.  
  
‘I’m happy just laying here with you, too.’ Ali admitted. They lay there together for a moment, silent with only the sounds of their breathing as a distraction. Ali noted Sirius’s dampened mood, she was tuning into his emotions much more readily than she ever had with another person before.   
  
‘You make me happy.’ She broke the silence, speaking to his chest instead of his face, ‘I wouldn’t have dreamed it in a million years that this would have been how I spent sixth year. You’re a pest and a rotten little prat. But somehow, you make me happier than anything else at this school ever has.’ It felt strange admitting that. It felt odd being so candid with someone that wasn’t her parents. It felt strange, but it also felt nice. It felt safe.  
  
She felt Sirius grip her hands tighter in his own and turned her attention up to his face. He paused, silent for a moment. Then he inhaled deeply and focused his gaze back onto her.  
  
‘Can I be honest with you for a second?’ His eyes seemed to almost light up with heightened emotions. Ali just nodded a reply, feeling her voice wouldn’t quiet reach him if she spoke.   
  
‘Sometimes-’ Sirius swallowed and took a breath, ‘-sometimes I worry that I don’t know how to love.’  
  
Ali blinked at him, a little confused. But she didn’t interrupt.  
  
‘It’s part of the reason I didn’t want to say we were dating, back before the Christmas party.’ Sirius’s eyes wandered down to their entwined hands. ‘I was never really shown love while I was growing up. My mother and father loved the idea of me, but they never really loved  _me_.’ For a moment Ali wanted to voice an argument. Of course his parents loved him. He might have been a troublemaker, but that would be no reason to deny your child of love. Parents  _had_ to love their children. It was an animalistic reaction. She’d read about it. But she kept quiet with her thoughts as Sirius paused. She didn’t feel like this was something up for debate. And so she listened.  
  
‘I get scared sometimes, because I don’t want to turn into my parents. They didn’t love each other. They didn’t love Regulus or I. They were just obsessed with status and blood purity. They used to cane us, and sear things into our skin when we acted up. Regulus-’ Sirius paused again, playing with his lip between his teeth, ‘Regulus learnt really fast to just do what they wanted. But me? I was a problem child. I couldn’t understand why they didn’t like me asking questions.’  
  
Caning little boys? Searing things into their skin? Ali felt her eyes stinging with the weight of the words being spoken. She was suddenly very happy she didn’t try to argue. Sirius continued on, stare fixated on their hands.  
  
‘I wanted my mother to love me. I wanted her love more than anything in this world.’ Ali had never been overly renowned for reading people. But the unspoken pain she could see in Sirius’s eyes at those words took a hold of her heart like a hand clasping around it and squeezing. ‘When I was eight, I sliced open my own hand, just to see if she would kiss it better. I saw that happen when I snuck out of the house one day. A little muggle boy had fallen over, and he was crying. So his mother came running out of the house and scooped him up. She kissed his knee where it was bleeding and he stopped crying as she took him inside to fix him up.  
  
               ‘When I went to my mother, blood spilling from my hand, she shook her head at me and called out to Kreacher. She told me I was stupid for not being more switched on, and left the house elf to heal me.’  
  
Ali felt a tear leak out from her eye closest to the pillow, but she didn’t move to wipe it. How could a mother  _be_  so loveless? She felt ill.  
  
‘I feel like, because I share their blood, I’ll grow into them, regardless of what I want. When I acted out and refused to be placed in Slytherin when the sorting hat suggested it, I did that because I didn’t want to be affiliated with their kind. The elitist of the magical world. The people that made me believe Mudblood was an acceptable term. People that openly express they think killing muggleborns is best for our kind. I didn’t want to be those people. Even though they were all I knew, somehow I knew I didn’t want to be them. But I chose that. So I don’t even know if I should be in Gryffindor. Maybe I will just grow into them eventually? Will I have a separate room from my wife if I ever marry? Will the only things we talk about include family traditions and scathing remarks towards those of unmagical breeding? If I ever have kids… will I beat them for reading out a line wrong from a book? Will I cane them when they miss a note on the piano? Will I burn things into their skin for asking questions about muggles?’  
  
‘Sirius.’ Ali’s voice cracked as she interrupted him. Tears were flowing freely from her eyes, but as Sirius directed his attention back to her face, his expression was impassive and barely sad. Ali reached out and pulled him into her body as she cried. For a while the only thing that could be heard in the dorm was Ali’s almost inaudible sniffles as she tried to calm herself.  
  
As some time passed, she found her voice again, ‘I had no idea… Sirius. I- I didn’t know parents could be that cruel.’ She stared back at him as she drew away from the refuge she had taken against his chest. Sirius still seemed distant, and as if he wasn’t completely present. He hummed a reply still engrossed in his own thoughts.  
  
‘Sirius,’ Ali tried to get his attention. She leant forward and placed a soft kiss on his lips and he blinked a couple of times, coming back to reality. ‘I’m sorry.’ It was the only thing she felt able to say.  
  
Sirius seemed a little stunned by her words as he just stared at her without replying.  
  
‘Please-‘ Ali stopped herself momentarily trying to thinking out the structure of her sentence in her head before speaking. She took a deep breath, which was still hitched with the remnants of her outburst.   
  
‘Please don’t ever think you’ll be like that. You’ll never be like them. You love everyone. You’re so much better with people than I am… you’re… you’re the epitome of love.’ It was the truest thing she could speak. She had once believed Sirius Black to be a brute, and incapable of human decency. But as she got to know him she had come to realise many things. Sirius Black was unfailingly loyal, it was uncanny. Sirius Black  _loved_  his friends. All of them. Even Peter, whom he teased. Sirius Black was an idiot, surely. But he was very far from incapable of love. And after just hearing a tiny snippet from his childhood, he probably  _should_  have been incapable of love. But he fought against it, and he was amazing for that.  
  
‘You’re amazing.’ Ali smiled back at him, one last tear escaping her eye. Sirius reached out to wipe the tear away and a small smile appeared on his face.  
  
‘Thank you.’ He whispered as they stared back at one another.   
  
Ali felt an all-encompassing need to stay with this boy, by his side, no matter what. It would have seemed Sirius Black had many layers, but he was starting to bare the innermost ones to her, and even being who she was, she  _knew_  that made her special.   
  
One thing was for sure, she wanted more than anything to hex Mrs Black into oblivion. What a sorry excuse for a witch. She would never allow anyone to hurt Sirius like that again. And she was going to get up early the following morning and write to her mother. She realised now just how silly she had been.  
  
She didn’t even realise she had drifted off to sleep, hand in hand with Sirius. And for once, Sirius would have a nightmare free sleep. 


	56. Message received

_Dear Mum,_  
  
 _I just wanted to say, I’m sorry we haven’t been in contact. I’m sorry I yelled at you on the platform. You are so far from being a bad mother. I know we don’t always see eye to eye, but I love you. I love you for accepting me as I am, and for always being there for me. I love that I can talk to you about anything and that you look after Dad and Tucker when I’m not around. I’m sorry for being a brat, and I want you to know, I appreciate everything you do for me._  
  
 _All my love,_  
  
 _Ali._  
  
Ali smiled down at the parchment with Sirius beside her in the common room. She’d woken up quite early, curled up beside him, his arm tight around her. She did her best to try and pry herself free of his grasp while not waking him up. She was almost home free, but he seemed to notice her absence once she was leaving the confines of the drapes and pulled her back down. As her stirring had woken him up, he’d gone downstairs with her quietly to write out the letter, as the rest of the room was still in a deep slumber.   
  
Sirius yawned, holding onto her free hand and giving his hair a good ruffle with his other. They heard the stairs creak and looked over to see who was on their way down. Emily appeared at the bottom of the girls’ stairs quickly followed by Mary. Sirius started to cough a little with laughter but Ali was much too distracted by the strange appearance of the girls to figure out the source of his outburst. She had no idea these two were even friends.   
  
‘Morning, ladies.’ Sirius offered as they passed by.   
  
‘Morning.’ Emily smiled at them, but Mary looked a little worried.   
  
‘M-morning, Black. Adams.’ Mary nodded to them and continued along. When she looked back at the two, Sirius spoke up.  
  
‘Don’t worry Macdonald, this one is pretty slow when it comes to figuring out secrets.’ As he finished his sentence Ali realised the slow person he was referring to was her. She frowned at him, but he was still watching the girls.  
  
‘Hey Macdonald,’ he continued, and when Ali looked over to Mary and Emily, they were paused at the portrait hole, ‘check this out.’ After his words, Ali felt his hand rest under her chin and it guided her face back to him. He leant forward and kissed her sweetly on the lips. Probably a little more deeply than she would usually allow when there were people around. Once he was done he turned away from her and grinned.  
  
‘Sirius, what the bloody hell was that?’  
  
‘It really is nice to be able to snog wherever you want to.’ He started to snicker and Ali was completely lost now. A groan came from Mary and Emily’s direction, and when Ali turned to them, she realised it was most definitely Mary who had voiced her disapproval. Emily was giggling.  
  
Mary grabbed Emily and tugged her through the portrait hole while Sirius’s laughter grew louder.  
  
‘Why was that funny? What am I not getting?’ Ali asked innocently.  
  
‘Never you mind. I’ll tell you when you get older, kid.’ Sirius winked at her and Ali felt the sudden need to harm him in some way. Her thoughts of maiming her boyfriend were interrupted however when they noticed a very light tapping at the window. They both directed their attention over to windowpane and saw the Adams family owl waiting patiently. He seemed as if he had been nestled on the ledge for some time, as his feathers were puffed out in an attempt at keeping himself warm.  
  
‘That’s strange. I heard from Dad just the other day.’ Ali stood and made her way over to let Sapphire in. He hopped through and glided down to safety before Ali retook her seat and extracted his letter. His little talons were freezing.  
  
'Have you been out there all night? Why are you so cold?' Ali stared at the owl as he gave her no reply. 'You don't think he came to my window... but I wasn't there?' Ali looked at Sirius. Sirius just shrugged, still sleepy and mentally incapable of questions at this time of morning, and Ali eventually gave up on her reasoning as to why the poor owl seemed to be suffering from frostbitten talons.   
  
When she unravelled the letter, she realised she and her mother must have been on the same wavelength, because such elegant handwriting certainly didn’t belong to Christian or Tucker.  
  
‘It’s from mum!’ She beamed over to Sirius and he smiled back at her.  
  
‘You two are scarily alike, you know that, right?’ Sirius said, but Ali didn’t fully catch it. She was too eager to read the letter from her mother. It had almost been three months since they last spoke. It was the longest they had ever gone.   
  
 _My dearest Ali,_  
  
 _I’ve been terribly stubborn not writing to you, and I’ve just come to realise how ridiculous I’ve been. I’m sorry if I embarrassed you on the platform. It’s not what I intended. I just want to make sure you’re safe and happy. You’re my baby girl after all. Watching you grow up into the fine lady you have become has been one of the greatest treasures of my life. I am thankful for you every day. If you think this boy is right for you, then I am certain he is. You’re one smart cookie and you never do anything without weighing out every possible avenue. I should know. Please bring him over for the holidays. I’ll deal with your father._  
  
 _Love you always,_  
  
 _Your mother._  
  
‘Do you feel better now?’ Sirius spoke from the chair across from her. He was stroking Sapphire and keeping him entertained while Ali read.   
  
‘Loads.’ Ali replied. She reached out to Sapphire and tied her own letter to his leg. ‘Could you take this to Mum, please? If you need any water or food, just pop up to the owlery on your way.’ Sapphire was a very easy owl. Much less temperamental compared to other breeds. He was purchased more so because Christian needed him for ministry work and also for urgent Order letters. But it was wonderfully convenient that he was easy to please and a fast flier. It wasn’t long before he was back out the window and on his way.   
  
But then Ali felt suddenly guilty as she turned her attention back to Sirius.  
  
‘Why do you look sad?’ He gave her a bemused smile.  
  
‘Well, after what we spoke about last night. I don’t know. I wish you had this. A relationship with your parents, that is.’ She looked down, feeling guilt-ridden. Sirius reached out and took her hand, but gave her no reply.  
  
‘Mum said she wants you to come over, during the summer break.’ Ali looked up and presented him with a smile. She was just as happy to read the accepting sentiments of her choices as she was to hear from her mother.   
  
‘Really?’ Sirius bit his lip.  
  
‘Yeah. No running away this time.’ Ali fixed him with a glare that made Sirius laugh. ‘What was all that with the girls about? Should I know something?’  
  
‘If you knew anything, I’d be very surprised.’ Sirius barely finished his sentence before they turned to the stairs from the noise coming from the boys’ side. It sounded as if a stampede was on its way down.   
  
‘Sirius! Sirius!’ James came flying out the bottom and rushed over to them. ‘There’s been a mass attack! They’ve hit London!’  
  
‘What!?’ Sirius jumped up and met James halfway, they both immediately started scanning over the copy of the daily prophet. They were heatedly discussing the front page article. Ali only managed to syphon out the words muggle and death eaters. They were talking much too fast for her to even bother trying to decipher it. She saw Lily coming down the stairs, looking white as a ghost. Ali stood up and made her way over to the redhead, who was being followed by both Peter and Remus.  
  
‘Lily, are you alright?’ Ali asked touching a hand to her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. She looked terrible.  
  
‘Ali-’ Lily looked up, ‘Ali my parents, they could have been at this event. It was a muggle gathering for Easter. I haven’t heard from them in days. What if they’re- dead?’ Her teeth began to chatter and what little colour was left in her fair cheeks drained at the thought of her parents becoming collateral damage to an attack of death eaters.  
  
‘Hey, don’t think like that. I’m sure they’re fine.’ Remus interrupted and rubbed Lily’s shoulder behind her. Ali was a little out of her depth. What was she supposed to say in a situation like this? It was actually highly likely that Lily’s parents could be dead. If it was an attack on muggles, Lily’s parents were in the firing range. Ali watched on as Remus drew Lily into a hug. Beside them James and Sirius were getting angrier and angrier about the article and voicing their attitudes. People were filing down from the dorms in the dressing gowns and slippers, looking around at each other.  
  
‘You okay?’ Ali jumped a little at his voice and whipped around to come face to face with Peter.  
  
‘Oh! Peter.’ Ali clasped her arms around her, ‘I- I feel bad.’ Peter was watching her, but thankfully he was the only occupant of the room that seemed to be. James and Sirius were furious. Remus and Lily had taken a seat together, and now even Marlene and the rest of the girls from their dorm were huddling around her.   
  
‘Why?’ Peter asked as they stepped out of the way of a few more students. Ali looked at Peter. She wasn’t sure if she should voice her feelings. She wasn’t sure if at a time like this, these feelings were important enough to merit attention.  
  
‘I just feel bad.’ She shrugged, ‘everyone else seems to be dealing with stuff. Real stuff. And I’m upset about having a row with my mum.’ She shrugged again, ‘it’s just a bit ridiculous. I’m a bit ridiculous.’ She felt guilty again. Lily’s parents could have potentially been murdered. James had just lost his father. Sirius, as she had just recently found out, had grown up neglected in a house of physical and emotional torture.  Suddenly things that seemed so real and cosmic in her life were starting to look pathetic and unjust.   
  
She looked over to see that Lily was crying now and James had joined them on the lounge with Sirius. Everyone was talking loudly. Students were throwing theories back and forth. There were a select few names of casualties being read. But Peter just touched a hand to her shoulder, drawing her attention back to him.  
  
‘Just because other people are dealing with really hard stuff, doesn’t mean whatever it is you’re going through isn’t real. Your problems matter, too.’ Peter smiled at Ali, and she gave him an appreciative smile in return. But the moment was interrupted by a  _loud_  and overbearing voice Ali knew all too well.   
  
‘-Cattermole? Does anyone know a Cattermole? What about Edgecombe? They were a couple of the magical names in the casualties list. It says here that they’ve sent in a team of advanced healers and ministry officials to start dealing with the damage. “Obliviators will be on the scene within the hour”.’ Both Peter and Ali watched as Nay Aswad read out a specific part of the newspaper to the growing crowd of Gryffindors.  
  
Nay caught his cousin’s eye and jumped down from the table he had climbed upon, parting the crowd easily. Ali and Peter watched him stride over until he was directly before them.  
  
‘Al, isn’t Uncle Chris an obliviator?’ Nay asked, seeming quite concerned.  
  
Ali shook her head, ‘No. No he’s not working in the department of accidental magical reversal anymore. He was promoted to magical law enforcement ages ago.’  
  
Nay sighed loudly and launched his hand forth to smack Ali on the shoulder, causing her to crumple from the weight.  
  
‘That’s a relief! Wouldn’t want him having to go into that scene. It sounds gruesome.’ Nay finished as Ali tried to steady herself, with Peter’s help.   
  
‘Are you related to him?’ Peter asked quizzically. Ali noted that Sirius seemed to be scanning the room for her.  
  
‘He’s my cousin.’ She said as she raised a hand to draw Sirius’s attention over to them.  
  
‘Really? That’s- I honestly would not have guessed that.’ Peter sounded a little dumbstruck which made Ali smile.  
  
‘Thank you. That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.’ They both looked at one another from a moment before they started laughing together as Sirius made it over to them.  
  
‘You know, I’m starting to wonder about you two.’ Sirius surveyed them shrewdly but Ali interrupted instantly.   
  
‘I have friends too, Black.’ She then reached out and grabbed a hold of his hand with a smile, and Sirius had never looked so shocked by her actions. ‘How’s Lily?’  
  
‘Uh- she’s pretty shaken, but we’re taking her to the owlery now so she can write home and see about the reply. That’s first priority before we go asking around to the professors. Listen, Ali-’ Sirius gave Peter a smile but dragged her away to talk in private. ‘I know you want to keep this thing secret, but look at what’s happening. People are  _dying_. Can’t you just tell me what this society is doing? Are they even fighting against you-know-who? Anything? We just want to help.’  
  
‘Sirius.’ Ali stared into his eyes. She wanted to tell him no and to move along. But his eyes, they were so helpless. She could see how desperately he wanted to do something. Anything he could to help. Ali sighed. ‘Okay, listen. I’m not going to be the one to tell you, but what if we go directly to Dumbledore? If you ask him, maybe he’ll fill you in? You are graduating in three months after all.’  
  
Sirius crushed her in a hug so tight it forced her to cough on expiration and grab a hold of him to stabilize herself afterwards. He grabbed onto her hand and pulled her by Peter and a few more students. They were out of the portrait hole before Ali knew what was happening.  
  
‘Sirius don’t be ridiculous, Dumbledore might not even be in the school! It’s the holidays after all.’ Ali was laughing at his eagerness.   
  
‘Doesn’t hurt to try!’ He replied, and they were weaving by tapestries, and running through corridors and down staircases before Ali could even form an argument against it. She supposed it was probably okay. Surely Dumbledore wouldn’t have minded? He had been all for her being filled in when she had asked.   
  
‘Nitwit.’ Sirius spoke to the stone gargoyle and rushed by him as the moving staircase appeared before them. He was on a mission. When they got to the oak door, Sirius knocked twice. No reply came for a moment and he knocked once more the door opened on its own.  
  
Ali felt a twinge, a strange feeling... like maybe they shouldn’t have been there.   
  
Both she and Sirius watched the door opening curiously and peered their heads around to see inside the office. Dumbledore stood inside, before his desk. He was joined by a curious creature. It took on the shape of a fox. It was an illuminated and beautifully see-through fox and Dumbledore was speaking to it. Dumbledore didn’t look like he had slept. Nor did he seem to have been very comfortable. It was as if he had just gotten there. Which was strange, as apparating within the castle walls was known to be impossible.   
  
The strange luminous fox vapour turned to look directly at Ali and Sirius and that’s when Ali realised what it was.  
  
‘That’s a Patronus.’ Ali whispered to Sirius. Then something clicked, ‘that’s my father’s Patronus.’ Sirius turned to look at her, but then they realised the headmaster was making his way over to them. They both straightened up as he approached and the fox seemed to vanish into thin air.  
  
‘Sorry headmaster, we didn’t mean in intrude.’ Ali noted that Dumbledore didn’t seem to be himself this morning. He seemed older than usual and heavy with something unknown. He reached out and took Ali’s hand within his own and that’s when she noticed a singular tear glide seamlessly down his weathered cheek from under his half-moon spectacles.   
  
‘Aaliyah.’ Ali was shocked. She had never seen Dumbledore show such emotion in her life. She had grown up around their headmaster and not once had she ever been aware of him crying. Sirius was watching on and Ali started to feel very out of place.   
  
She looked up into Dumbledore’s bright blue eyes and they were glistening. There was a deafening silence around them before he continued.   
  
‘I’m so sorry my dear.’ Dumbledore’s iron resolve was  _barely_  faltering. But it  _was_  faltering and Ali was suddenly petrified. It was as if she could feel something bad coming and the sound of white noise started to fill her ears. ‘It’s your mother. Your mother was killed last night, providing aid to muggles at the attack.’ Dumbledore’s hands gripped her singular one tight within them.   
  
The white noise in her ears was overpowering. It almost consumed her. She had to think on what Dumbledore had just said, to let it settle in her brain. She could feel his tender old hands gripping her own. Her head and body felt light as if she were about to float away. She swayed momentarily as the gravity of the words smashed into her like a tidal wave of anguish.   
  
She wanted to vomit.  
  
Her eyes started to widen with the realization of her headmaster’s solemn words. Time started to slow down. Ali could hear Sirius breathing beside her. She could feel her heart beating. Everything seemed frozen. She could hear that Dumbledore was speaking now, but she wasn’t registering it. Suddenly her throat tightened. Her chest swelled with the breath she wasn’t aware she was taking. Her heart started to pound. Hard and fast. It was almost painful. She was shaking. It was like someone had smashed two cymbals together at the base of her neck and the reverberation was slowly causing an echo effect to travel up her head and down her body. She couldn’t stop the shaking.   
  
She could hear nothing but the white noise. It was becoming unbearable. Tears were forming in her eyes. She could feel them just barely starting to overflow and cascade down her cheeks. She was still shaking. She couldn’t stop the shaking. Her heart was pumping so fast she feared it might stop. She couldn’t  _move_. She had to will herself to  _move_. Suddenly her breaths became harder and harder to draw in. She was suffocating, she couldn’t breathe. Her arms launched up from her side and out of Dumbledore’s grasp to cling at her throat. It felt as if she was choking.   
  
She looked around, wildly confused. Her vision was so blurred from the onslaught of tears. Someone grabbed a hold of her and she let go of any ambitions to keep herself standing. She crumpled to her knees and her body shook violently with the sobs she couldn’t hear and the breaths she was fighting to take. She tried again and again to scream out. To tell someone she couldn’t breathe. She was surely dying. She was going to disappear into the blackness swelling around her.   
  
She couldn’t hear anything. Was no one there? She needed someone. Anyone. She needed help.  
  
She kept her eyes shut tight as a warmth surrounded her. She was still shaking, but there was something forcing her to stop. Her fingers gouged into something soft and she clung to it for dear life. Even though there was warmth all around her, she felt so cold. So alone. She tried to scream again for help. But still nothing came out. She couldn’t hear anything going on around her. Why was her voice failing her at such a time? Everything was black around her. She needed air. Time and time again she attempted to voice her terror and pain but nothing. It was like she was being forced to sleep, but all she wanted was to awaken from this horrible nightmare.   
  
And then suddenly she was set free of her anguish along with everything else. The pain. The fear. The cold. Everything disappeared and her body went limp.


	57. Denial and isolation

‘How is she?’ James asked placing a hand on Sirius’s forearm, alerting him to their presence. Sirius whipped around from where he was standing, watching Ali in her sedated state in one of the school’s hospital cot's.  
  
‘I don’t know what to do.’ Sirius looked at James with trepidation, ‘she was just screaming. We couldn’t calm her down. She just- she just completely broke down and was-  _screaming_  out for help. I kept trying to calm her down and hold her but it was like she was dying. Dumbledore did something and she just went limp.’ Sirius was still shaking. Never in his life had he seen anyone shatter like he had just witnessed Ali falling to pieces. He had never been so scared.  
  
Lily had tears in her eyes standing behind James. She had her head downturned and looked like a chastised child. Sirius watched her while James spoke.  
  
‘I don’t know Padfoot, this is heavy. Very heavy. Losing a parent is earth-shattering. But losing a parent out of the blue- finding out your mum was murdered- I just don’t know.’ James scooped Lily forward and kept his arm tight around her as she buried her face in his neck.  
  
‘Evans, are you okay?’ Sirius asked. After what he had just been through, he didn’t think he could cope with another person so close to him breaking down.   
  
‘She’s just a bit upset with herself.’ James shook his head.   
  
‘I was crying about  _my_ parents to her, James.’ Lily spoke through her tears.  
  
‘How were you supposed to know Lily? You’re being too hard on yourself.’ James stroked her back but she just started to weep into his shirt. James sighed but kept a firm grip on her, rubbing her shoulder.  
  
‘Are  _you_  okay?’ He asked Sirius, who seemed transfixed on Lily. Sirius shook himself out of his daze and looked up.  
  
‘I’m- okay.’ He nodded, ‘I’m- what do I do? She’s… her mother is dead.’ Sirius had never felt so lost. His girlfriend had just lost her mother. Her mother was killed trying to save innocent muggles in an attack by death eaters. Dumbledore had said the words so clearly and in that moment Sirius didn’t know how to respond.   
  
At first he just turned to watch Ali. It was like someone had hit her with a stunning spell. She just stood for a second, before stumbling over nothing in particular. She dry retched a few times and Sirius was sure she was going to vomit. But he was frozen against being able to fetch her anything to vomit into. He and Dumbledore just stood, watching on, like pathetic statues. Even Dumbledore seemed immobilised at first.   
  
Eventually he started to explain what had happened. He was trying to relay the facts, like possibly that would have helped her grasp the situation better. She was just standing there, stunned.  
  
When her eyes widened and she started clawing at her own throat, taking fast and strangled breaths, that woke the two of them up pretty quickly. Dumbledore had reached forward to stop her potentially harming herself as she grabbed so viciously at her throat. That’s when her knees gave out and she started to collapse and thankfully Sirius launched forth and grabbed her, slowly falling to the ground with her.  
  
 _‘Sir, what do we do?’_  Sirius had asked desperately as Ali started to scream and wail.   
  
 _‘She’s having an attack, try to calm her. Is there anything you can say to calm her Sirius?’_  
  
Sirius felt beyond useless. There was nothing he could do. He felt a pain radiate in his chest watching on as the angel before him screamed out continuously for help. It was as if she had lost a grip on her surroundings completely. Tears were streaming from her eyes and Sirius was sure he had never seen anyone wear a pain so real. It hurt to watch her like that. It burnt.   
  
Dumbledore had taken out his wand and touched it gently to her head and Ali suddenly lost her voice. Mid scream she fizzled out and leant against Sirius for support. Finally Sirius sat there, in the doorway of their headmaster’s office, Ali limp in his arms. He looked down at her face with tears welling in his eyes. Even after being knocked out, she still looked as if she were in pain.   
  
Sirius had just touched his forehead to her own while Dumbledore spoke to him. He explained to take her to the hospital wing and inform Madam Pomfrey to give her something for her nerves. He had to get back to the front lines and to the ministry. Apparently, he had only returned as a favour to Ali’s father to relay the information and take her to him. Aaliyah was now to be kept at school until she awoke when Dumbledore would arrange for a portkey to take her to her father and brother.   
  
‘Don’t move dear. It’s okay. You just lay there, you rest.’ Madam Pomfrey’s voice startled both Sirius and James from their conversation and they turned around to see the matron making a fuss over Ali’s bed.  
  
Sirius made a move for her and came around to see Ali starting straight ahead at nothing in particular. Her face was blank and unreadable.  
  
‘Ali?’ Sirius murmured, coming around to the side she was laying on. Ali didn’t reply. It seemed as if she hadn’t heard him at all. Her eyes stayed fixated on nothing and she made no attempt at moving.  
  
‘Ali?’ Sirius tried again. No reply. He looked over at Lily and James for some answers. Lily no longer had tears in her eyes and shrugged at him, a little lost. James just seemed to be watching Ali’s shallow breathing. Sirius knelt down to be closer to Ali’s level. Even though he was situated directly in her field of vision, it felt as if she were staring straight through him.  
  
‘Ali, when you’re ready… let us know and we’ll take you home, okay? Whenever you’re ready.’ He waited for some kind of signal to say she had heard him. But none came. She just stared ahead, unblinking, as passive as someone in a trance. Sirius decided it probably wasn’t best to disturb her and got back to his feet and looked over to James and Lily. He walked around and they moved a few feet away from the bed to where Madam Pomfrey was brewing up a remedy for her.  
  
‘Is she- will she be alright?’ Sirius asked in a very hushed tone.  
  
Madam Pomfrey looked back at the three of them with a stern lip. ‘She’s in shock.’ She replied and continued to stir her remedy, ‘she needs rest. It might be best if you just leave her with me for a while.’ She nodded to them with a grave smile. All three heads nodded in return, not knowing what else to do. James secured his hand in Lily’s, and wrapped an arm around Sirius and led them to the doors of the hospital wing. For now, they would all just have to wait. 

*

‘How is she?’ Remus asked the following morning as Sirius came back through the portrait hole looking downtrodden.  
  
‘She just stares. No matter what I say, she just stares blankly ahead.’ Sirius relayed, ‘And it’s not just with me. Her cousins were there, trying to fetch her. To take her to her family.  _Cousins_. I didn’t even know she  _had_  cousins here. Let alone ones in our bloody house. But the two of them left together soon after because she refuses to acknowledge  _anyone_.’   
  
Sirius had barely slept the night before. James, Peter, and Remus had all sat around in the common room with him knowing how worried he was. Most of them had fallen asleep on the couches and Lily had woken them up after rounds.   
  
‘Madam Pomfrey still thinks it’s best to leave her be?’ Peter asked. The entire common room seemed to be listening in. Of course news travelled fast around Hogwarts, and it being the holidays still with no classes to distract anyone, and Ali seeming to have become a very popular topic of discussion since she started dating Sirius, it had taken no time at all for the news to spread. Some people had braved the boys and asked how she was, but it was aggravating Sirius.  
  
‘She says she needs time to recover. That she’s not fit to travel.’ Sirius’s voice was cracking, ‘Her father wrote her a letter, but she won’t read it.’ He waved the letter in his hand around limply.  
  
‘Will they come and get her?’ Lily asked. She hadn’t cried yet this morning, but it was only early. She had been in tears many times yesterday, guilt-ridden.   
  
‘They can’t force her anywhere!’ Sirius snapped, ‘if she doesn’t want to move, she doesn’t have to move.’   
  
‘Alright mate, calm down.’ James was the voice of reason among them. Sirius and Lily had lost it, Remus and Peter were out of their element, having never lost anyone so close, and James was holding them all together. ‘She didn’t mean that. Just sit down and relax. We’re all here for you.’  
  
‘Why don’t I go?’ Remus suggested and everyone turned to look at him. Sirius took a seat by him as Remus continued, ‘I’ve known her the longest. Perhaps I could help?’ As he looked around at everyone, Marlene and Lily nodded to him in support.  
  
Sirius sighed, ‘Can’t hurt. She won’t speak to me, so we could all give it a go.’  
  
‘Yeah, just relax Padfoot. You’ll worry yourself to death.’ Peter said but immediately noted his horrendous choice of words. ‘Shit. Sorry.’  
  
They all turned to look at James as he started to chuckle in the background. The entire common room’s inhabitants, full as it was, were silent. But James was amused.  
  
‘James, stop it.’ Lily was looking at him like he’d caught dragon pox.  
  
‘Sorry. It’s just… this situation is  _fucked_. But here’s Wormtail. Screwing up. At least that’ll never change.’ James continued to muffle his laughter. Remus turned to Sirius when a small laugh escaped his breath. Wormtail smiled around at them, and before long they were all absurdly laughing and shaking their heads.  
  
‘You all need sleep.’ Remus smiled as he stood up. He left as the laughter around the room died and made his way down to the hospital wing.  
  
‘Hi Poppy.’ Remus smiled at the matron as she rushed to the door when he entered. There was a partition put up around Ali’s cot now, hiding her from the rest of the inhabitants of the ward.   
  
‘Hello dear, you’re not feeling off still are you?’ she asked looking him over and touching his forehead. Remus smiled at her kindness.  
  
‘No, I’m okay. Moon was five nights ago. Strongest I’ll ever be, at this point.’ He smiled through the lie. ‘I just wondered if I could see Adams?’  
  
‘Oh, I don’t know, dear. She’s not doing very well.’  
  
‘I just wanted to sit with her. Let her know she has someone around?’ Madam Pomfrey seemed to contemplate it for some time. But she gave in.  
  
‘Alright. I can’t say no to my favourite student. But not too long. It’s a very unfortunate thing, losing a mother. I expect she won’t walk away from this without scars.’ Madam Pomfrey looked woeful as she led Remus in and down to the last bed, by her office. He slipped in behind the partitions and Ali was laying with her back to him, still in her clothes from yesterday.   
  
Remus shimmied around until he was in her line of vision and took a seat in the available chair. He wasn’t entirely sure what to say. Sirius was right though. It was as if she hadn’t even noticed him come in. She just stared on ahead as if she were in a coma.   
  
‘Ali?’ Remus’s voice was so low he barely heard it himself, ‘I’m so sorry, Ali.’ He whispered leaning forward. She didn’t move. It was almost as if she were frozen. Remus felt his eyes stinging as tears started to form.  
  
‘Oh, Ali.’ He took in a hitched breath feeling her crushing pain penetrate his being. He moved closer and placed his arms on her bed and his head on his arms, ‘I’m so sorry. I’m here for you. I’m always here for you.’  
  
Even without speaking a word, she had conveyed just how broken she was. It was consuming. Remus felt tears falling from his eyes and hitting his forearms. He just wanted to stay there with her. To provide her with some kind of comfort, even if she was seemingly unresponsive. He knew this is what he would have wanted had he been in her situation. When she decided to talk again, he would have chocolate and hugs for her. 

*

‘Ali?’ Lily shuffled in behind the partitions and saw Ali laying there. ‘Ali I hope it’s okay I’m here? I just wanted to see you.’ Lily made her way around but didn’t take a seat. She didn’t feel like she deserved that.   
  
‘Ali…’ Lily felt like she was choking as she tried to hold back her tears. She’d been a mess since yesterday and James was being so lovely about it. He hugged her, and comforted her, and brought her into his arms after she had finished her rounds the night before, and let her cry a puddle on to his shirt just before while he tried to calm Sirius down.   
  
‘I don’t even know what to say to you.’ Lily looked down at her shuffling feet. ‘And I know you hate crying.’ Her teeth started chattering again as she fought her tears, ‘I’m doing my best. And I know you are, too.’ Her tears started to run down her cheeks and she quickly wiped them away.  
  
‘I’m sorry, Ali. I’m so, so sorry.’ She looked down at her from her distant stance and Ali was unmoving. She was still staring directly ahead, nowhere near where Lily stood. But there were tears in her eyes even though her face was still unchanged and impassive.   
  
‘Oh god, now I’m making you cry, too. I’ll go. I’m so sorry. I’m just-’ she stopped herself knowing this would probably have been torture. She wanted more than anything to move forward and slip onto the bed and just envelope the girl before her in a tight hug. But she felt it wasn’t right. Ali needed space. She needed solace in her own thoughts.   
  
‘I’m sorry.’ She couldn’t stop herself. But after that she turned and left the makeshift room and her face contorted into a horrible frown. The tears streamed freely from her eyes and she strode from the hospital wing, furious with herself. 

*

‘Ali?’ Peter peeped his head around the partition, having just coerced Madam Pomfrey into  _finally_  allowing him in to see her. Remus had stayed down with her most of the day. When he had finally returned, his mood damp, he had taken up a seat by Sirius and they looked like twins of melancholy. Lily had wanted to go down for so long, no one had fought her when she stood next.   
  
Problem was, she returned so soon afterward and in such a fluster, James had to tend to her instead of going down himself. Sirius and Remus were both in a state of existential crisis so Peter slipped out, grabbing something he wanted to give to Ali that she had dropped the day before. It was when Sirius had enveloped her in a bone crushing hug while Peter had looked on.   
  
He came around the bed and saw firsthand what both Sirius and Remus were on about. Ali looked so delicate and beautiful. Peter had always admired her beauty, even before he had spoken to her. He wouldn’t dare tell Sirius of it, but it didn’t mean anything to admire someone. He admired more than just her beauty, too. She was a fierce adversary for them back when they used to play up a lot. When she used to catch them, Peter would always lose his words and blame Sirius.   
  
Ali always believed him innocent. She was kind to those that needed kindness and firm to those that needed guidance. He wanted to help her. But he didn’t know how.   
  
He didn’t speak for a while, he just stood at the bottom of her bed looking on. She looked grief-stricken. No doubt about it. But she also looked so serene and tranquil. Her hair fell in honey coloured ripples behind her back and her knees were pulled up to her body and her arms into her chest.   
  
She was such a tiny girl. She was only just taller than Peter himself. Lily was up there with the boys in her height. Peter felt comfortable with Ali. He sighed looking on at her unmoving form.   
  
‘I wanted to bring you this.’ Peter spoke up, coming around fully now to see her eyes. They had dark circles around them with a hint of redness. She was in pain. He reached out and placed the letter down by her head, swallowing from their closeness.   
  
‘You dropped it when Padfoot pulled you from the room. I thought you might want it…’ He looked down at her for a while. When she didn’t move he bit his lip and made to leave. He turned back at the exit and looked over at her once more.   
  
He witnessed one of her arms leave the confines of her foetal position and reach up to grasp the letter. It returned smoothly to her chest with the letter held tight in her dainty hands. Peter smiled and watched her for a time, before stepping out and keeping his back to the exit. He stood there for a long time, just listening to her almost inaudible breathing thanks to the heightened hearing his animagus form gave him.  
  
He even heard the tears as they hit the pillow below her head, although no sobs or sounds of pain at all could be made out. 

*

James had managed to get Lily to sleep by allowing her to cry on him while he hugged her, and put her down in his bed. Peter had returned from downstairs with solemn news, Ali still wasn’t speaking. James had travelled downstairs and brought up bits and pieces of food for Peter, Sirius and Remus as they were all forlorn and pathetic, trying to figure out how to help their friend and girlfriend. James had never seen Sirius so panicked.  
  
Once they were fed and almost falling asleep to Sirius discussing all the things he wanted to do to the tyrant that ended Kanika’s life, James slipped out of the portrait hole and made his way down to the hospital wing. When he slipped into the wing, Madam Pomfrey seemed to have fallen asleep at her desk. James vowed to wake her up and get her to bed once he’d seen Ali, he just didn’t want his chance to be thwarted.  
  
He slipped in by the partitions and looked down at Ali. She hadn’t moved. Surely her blood would be pooling in her side and she would be in pain? James shook his head and moved around to come face to face with her. He had wanted to get down to her all day, but things kept coming up that he had to take care of.   
  
‘Hey,’ he whispered and got down to her eye level. True to his word, Sirius was not wrong. She didn’t register him at all even though he was in her direct line of vision. She just stared blankly ahead, ‘I’ve never been that great at personal boundaries, sorry Adams.’   
  
James reached over the bed and slid his hand under her head and moved her. Ali seemed startled at first, but James ignored it and slipped into the bed and put his arms around her, bringing her smaller body up to fit against his own. She was tense and shaking but James brought a hand up and pulled her head to rest under his chin.  
  
‘I know you’re in pain. I know.’ He started to stroke her hair as he pressed his cheek against the top of her head, ‘this is the worst possible feeling you will ever feel. It hurts. You feel like you’ve just lost a part of your very being. Your heart is broken. I know.’ He continued to stroke her hair.  
  
Her shaking calmed down. Her stiffness started to ebb.   
  
‘Your pain… it’s real. You’re right to feel like the world is ending. Don’t think for a second you’re being unjust in feeling lost.’ James thought back to all the wild things that ran through his head when he got the news about his father.   
  
‘It’s okay to be broken. We’re all here for you. I’m here for you.’ James continued to stroke her hair gently. Suddenly her body started to shake again, but it was less jolted than before. Then he heard her breath escaping and knew that she was crying. Her nails dug into the jumper he was wearing and her strangled cries became more and more audible.   
  
‘I know.’ James repeated, continuing on with his repetitive stroking hoping it would convey to her that he was there and he was not going away. One thing that petrified James when he lost his father was the realization that nothing was permanent. Everything ended and he needed to be reassured that the people around him weren’t going to leave like his father had.   
  
‘It hurts.’ It was high pitched and so full of pain, but it was the first words any of them had heard in almost forty-eight hours.   
  
‘I know it does.’ James felt his eyes glassing over. He could feel the pain transferring into him. He had lost his father just under two months ago and he had not cried. But now, as he lay with this broken girl in his arms, he thought of his father and the grief he had buried.   
  
‘I know.’ He said again and kissed the top of her head before pulling her in tighter. ‘It’s not going to stop hurting any time soon. But you have to keep fighting. You can’t give up.’  
  
‘I don’t want to be alive.’ Ali’s voice was shaky and James was barely holding his own against his tears. He nodded in agreement knowing exactly how she felt. Even if he had managed to hold himself well for his mother’s sake, he had had the same thoughts at night when he thought of his father. It was why he had chosen to stay at school for his birthday. He couldn’t handle seeing the pain in his sweet mother’s eyes at his first birthday without his father there.  
  
A singular tear made the first contact with his cheek, ‘I know. But you have to live, Adams. Because there’s a little guy that I reckon is feeling just the same way.’ Tears were falling from his eyes now. He hadn’t known too much about the Adams family, but he knew she had a little brother. He had met her father briefly, her father would need her too, but her brother.   
  
‘You lost your mum. That’s not easy. Your mum is gone and that’s devastating.’ James spoke unevenly with hitched breathing, as Ali continued to cry into his chest, ‘but so did your little brother. And I bet he’s sitting at home with your dad, and he needs his big sister.’  
  
James gripped Ali with all his might and hugged her so closely, as she coughed and spluttered her tears out. He let her continue for a while, glad that she was finally breaking out of her coma-induced state. James had not cried when his father died. People needed him to be strong that day and he was. But today, finally, someone needed him to be honest. Someone needed him to be real. He felt an unbearable wave of anguish wash over him as Ali cried out her pain. It was the first time he allowed his tears to flow when thinking about his father, and it was as if now that it was happening, he couldn’t turn it off.   
  
He tried to continue, ‘Dumbledore has set up a portkey to take you home. Your father has written and said he’s expecting you when you’re ready to travel. Sirius wants to go with you, we all want to be here for you.’ James relayed to her without moving.  
  
‘Would you like to go home?’ He asked, still calmly stroking her hair. He felt Ali nod her head slowly, just twice. He smiled as their tears continued to fall.  
  
‘We’ll take you in the morning.’ James confirmed but didn’t move. He knew Ali wasn’t one for hugs. He usually hugged her to annoy her. It was entertaining. But he  _knew_  she needed this. Everyone stepped on eggshells around those that had just lost a parent. It was foreign and frightening to a friend and even a lover. They didn’t know what to say or do. But James felt connected to Ali.   
  
He kept gently pulling his hand over her soft curls and allowed her to continue weeping. She was broken and wounded and she needed closeness. She needed someone to break down her barriers and be there, even if she said she didn’t want it. Or said nothing at all.   
  
And James himself couldn’t turn off his own emotions for the first time in months. They stayed close and Ali eventually tired herself out, falling into a strangled sleep in James’s arms. James didn’t feel like moving her and allowed his eyes to shut, still holding her tight, and fell asleep soon after.


	58. The Minister of pranks

Remus was beside Peter in charms class, watching Sirius out of the corner of his eye. He was a little worried about him. Since Ali had left to go home a week ago, and classes had started back up, Sirius was down and out. Mostly the boys had tried to let him regain his flame on his own. But the way Ali had left wasn’t exactly something a normal person  _wouldn’t_  focus on.   
  
James had come upstairs to let the boys know Ali had snapped out of her stupor and come to her senses. She was finally crying and ostensibly ready to grieve. Remus and Peter had jumped up at the notion, glad to know it was progress. But Sirius… Sirius was just a little dazed over the fact that it had been James to bring her around.  
  
 _‘But… she wasn’t even looking at me, how did you get her to decide to go home?’_  
  
It was quite the awkward moment all around. James didn’t really agree or explain. He just kind of shrugged and shook his head dismissing it with,  _‘it’s just… shared experiences. Come on, Madam Pomfrey has her in the dorm getting her things.’_  
  
And that wasn’t even the worst of it. When they had all rushed down the stairs, and Sirius had grabbed some stuff to go along with her, Ali had looked exhausted and broken. Sirius had gone straight to her side, but she’d hesitated. She took a deep breath and spoke just six words through her silently streaming tears.  
  
 _‘I think I should go… alone._ ’ And without so much as a goodbye, Madam Pomfrey had ushered her out of the Gryffindor common room, followed by Professor McGonagall. No one knew what to do. James had put a hand on his shoulder and told him not to dwell on it, that she was in a strange place and would need some time to think.   
  
It had been a week and Sirius had just sort of, blanked. When classes started up, he dragged his feet through the halls and followed James around, but he wasn’t himself. Instead of leaning back on the back legs of his chair and daydreaming, he had his head rested on his arms, slouched down at his desk. James was taking random bits of notes beside him. James had been neglecting Lily this past week in favour of staying by Sirius’s side. Lily had mentioned it to Remus once but had said she understood completely. Lily and Marlene were together in front of them. Lily was looking back at Sirius from time to time, as worried as Remus. Marlene was stealing chaste glances back at Remus himself and he was trying to act like he wasn’t noticing them.   
  
He was happy that Marlene was talking to him again, but he didn’t like the vibe he was receiving from her. He still had feelings for her, very much so. And he was guessing she felt the same. But he just couldn’t risk that again. He couldn’t handle the way he’d hurt her. It devastated him to see her so glum and downtrodden for so long. He just  _could not_  do that again. He gently turned his head upwards from the notes he was taking for their NEWT’s and his eyes caught hers. Instead of instantly turning away, she just gave him a sweet smile.   
  
Remus felt a pang in his chest as he returned it, then went back to ignoring her. Professor Flitwick was going over some important things about their NEWT’s and seeing as Sirius wasn’t copying anything down, Remus thought it would be best if he had both James’ and his notes to go over when he was ready.  
  
Later on that afternoon, as they were on their way down to greenhouse three, Remus pulled Peter back from where they were traipsing along behind James and Sirius.  
  
‘What was that for?’ Peter frowned at him, rubbing the space Remus had grabbed on his forearm.  
  
‘We have to cheer him up.’ Remus ignored his whining and flung his hands out before them, gesturing towards the other half of their foursome.   
  
‘Oh.’ Peter watched them walking, and Sirius stumbled over a rock in the path and barely managed to catch himself in time. ‘I don’t think anything we can do is going to cheer him up, Moony. His girl has basically told him she doesn’t want him around when she’s at her worst. I’d take that personally, too.’   
  
Peter shrugged, but Remus had an idea.  
  
‘What’s the one thing that always put a smile on that bored face?’ Remus asked with a grin.  
  
‘Uh… Adams?’ Peter suggested, looking as if he didn’t think this guessing game would get them very far.  
  
Remus sighed, ‘Trouble, Wormtail. We have to cause some kind of trouble and he’ll crack a smile. It’s been ages since the Pranks Committee have had any real tasks on their filthy hands. Let’s grime them up.’   
  
Peter nodded to him enthusiastically. He was just as down as the rest of them since Ali had left and a cloud of gloom had descended on the Gryffindors. The death of Ali’s mother hadn’t just affected the seventh years. Nay Aswad had left also, and his friends had taken the hit just the same way Remus and the others were, and that included the entirety of the quidditch team. Remus hadn’t even been aware that Ali was related to the loud Aswad kid. And apparently he had a twin sister that had gone along with him from Ravenclaw that he was willing to bet would have upset friends also. There was a damp feeling all around. Remus didn’t want to dismiss such a horrible event. But he wanted to see a smile. He wanted to hear some laughter. There was too much sadness in their world. If they let it consume them they would never live.  
  
As they filed into the greenhouse and Professor Sprout instructed them of their tasks, the cogs in Remus’s mind started to turn. He let a discerning grin settle on his face without realizing it and suddenly Peter elbowed him.  
  
‘Lupin! Did you hear me?’ Professor Sprout’s voice was tested and when Remus directed his attention to her face, it was just as irked. ‘This isn’t first year! You could lose a limb if you’re not paying attention.’  
  
‘Personally I think it might add a little character Professor, don’t the ladies find scars attractive?’ He smiled sweetly over to their professor, and the face she gave in return was as dumbfounded as it got.   
  
There were scattered snickers around the crowd of Gryffindor’s and Ravenclaw’s. He could distinctly hear James’s laughter among them. But when he allowed his eyes to dart quickly to his left side, Sirius was just standing there, unperturbed.  
  
‘I don’t know what’s gotten into you Lupin, but if you don’t cut the cheek, you’ll be serving detention with me tonight.’ Professor Sprout gave him another warning look, and Remus knew this was testing it. But he had to, and they were leaving soon, after all. How many more chances would they have at pestering their professors?  
  
‘Professor Sprout, really, don’t you think such seductive remarks should be kept between the two of us? It’s unorthodox.’ Remus raised a loosely closed fist to his smirking lips as if he were flirting. Had it been any other professor, Remus was sure he would have seen steam shoot from their ears. But Sprout had always been a bit of a player in their antics.   
  
When the whole class burst out into laughter, she joined in for a moment. Remus looked to his left once more, and Sirius was cracking that grin. But it wasn’t enough. Professor Sprout came around to smack him over the head with her dragon hide gloves and told him to watch his mouth. The rest of the class operated quite fluidly. Remus tried to continue with his little jokes while the four of the boys worked together.  
  
When they went down to lunch, Remus pulled James aside while Peter distracted Sirius.  
  
‘The Minister of the Pranks Committee has a plan that needs to be set in motion.’ Remus started when James looked ready to question him.  
  
‘Well,’ James’s facial features settled on a very sly looking expression, ‘as Advisor to the Minister, I have to say, Sir. About bloody time.’   
  
Remus wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled him into a hug as the boys laughed and began discussing their ideas. They were interrupted by Lily, Marlene and Mary as the girls passed them on their way into the hall.  
  
‘What are you two up to?’ Lily asked, giving them the once over. The way she looked at James always made Remus smile. Anyone that couldn’t see how absolutely and completely these two adored each other, would have to be blind. Amidst a war with people dying all around them, it was a very rare thing to be able to watch blossom. Remus was happy his friends were able to find each other, and allow themselves to fall so completely for one another.   
  
‘Just working on some really secret stuff, Lily. Sorry, it’s strictly committee business.’ James nodded, his head still trapped under Remus’s arm.  
  
Remus smirked, ‘I’ll allow it.’ He said, tightening his grip on James.  
  
James whooped with excitement, ‘right on! Let the ladies join the ranks! Destroy the patriarchy!’   
  
Remus let him loose laughing at his ridiculous display as he fist pumped the idea. Then he launched forward, swooping Lily off her feet and dipping her back to kiss her. Mary and Marlene burst into giggles and made their way over to Remus to be out of the range of fire.   
  
‘Do you really want our help?’ Mary asked innocently. Remus turned to the shorter girl and smiled.  
  
‘Oh yes. I want the whole school involved in this before classes are over.’ He winked at her and Mary brought her bottom lip into her mouth from excitement.  
  
‘Well, we’re in for anything. This school could use some of the ol’ dork patrol charm.’ Marlene stated very matter-of-factly.   
  
Remus had to turn to her to gauge her expression. She was smiling at him only very slightly and looking as fierce as she once used to before Remus had gone and broken her heart.  
  
‘Hey, we are  _not_  dorks.’ James fought, bringing Lily over to them now that he was done snogging her.  
  
‘You guys are  _definitely_  dorks.’ Lucinda Talkalot, the Slytherin quidditch captain piped in behind them followed by a large group of Slytherin’s, ‘and you’re blocking the way to food,  _dorks_ , move aside.’   
  
‘Talkalot!’ James shouted bouncing away from Lily, ‘we could actually use a woman of your calibre in this particular plan. Would you be interested in the shaming of our professors and potentially serving time to inject some life back into this pile of stone?’  
  
Lucinda Talkalot was known to have been harbouring a crush for James, and so when Remus noted her cheeks turn to a lovely shade of pink as James pulled her into one of his infamous side hugs, Remus wasn’t all that surprised.   
  
‘Oh, sure.’ She sighed, ‘why not?’ James voiced his victory while Lucinda rolled her eyes, albeit smiling. If they had the Slytherin’s mostly on board, it would be easy work getting the Hufflepuff’s and Ravenclaw’s included, too. 

*

Remus was watching the old clock in their Transfiguration class. It had started just five minutes ago and it was the last class of the day. Remus, James, Peter, Lily, Mary and Marlene had spent both their breaks today plotting. They had spread the word to as many students as they knew would participate. Those students were then told to spread it further.   
  
Remus could still see the look of sheer delight on the little first year’s faces when he asked them to be a part of their prank. The little kids he had shown around the castle on their first night at Hogwarts… the ones he had been in charge of with Ali. He sighed heavily looking at Sirius who was staring off into space as McGonagall made her way down the lines of desks.  
  
‘Mister  _Black_!’ McGonagall reprimanded when she had to ask him for a second time the importance of concentration in the practice of transfiguration.   
  
‘Yes, Professor?’ Sirius replied, coming out of his stupor.  
  
‘Were you even listening to me, Black?’  
  
‘I hang off your every word Professor.’   
  
‘Tell me, Black. What was I  _just_  explaining to the class?’ McGonagall was staring down at Sirius with her stern lip while Sirius looked as if he still wasn’t quite tuned in.  
  
‘Sorry Professor, I wasn’t listening. What was that?’ The class around them broke into dispersed giggles and then the clock hit their selected time, and not a moment too soon.   
  
‘Dear old Professor Gonnie, she’s quite the sprightly lass. Don’t let her in on all her nicknames, ‘cause her reactions will most certainly be crass.’ James had taken a stand by Sirius and started the planned rendition.   
  
Professor McGonagall just looked at James with bored annoyance. The poor woman was used to them by now. She had the makings of an argument heavy on her lips when one of their Hufflepuff counterparts, Amos, stood at a desk towards the front and continued.  
  
‘Sweet old Professor McGoogles, don’t let her catch you cheatin’ to pass. That bun on her head if full of rage, she’ll unleash it on your sorry ass.’  
  
‘Mister  _Diggory_!’  
  
‘Come now Minnie, don’t be lame, won’t you play along with our little game?’ Remus stood now and he couldn’t help his smirk. Professor McGonagall looked almost ready to boil over and hex someone. Just as she told them all to take their seats, another Hufflepuff stood up, closer to them and began the next part of their rehearsed chant. That’s when they heard yelling down the hall, just as they had expected.   
  
The students all started to stand and crowd around McGonagall as she made her way towards the door of the classroom. She kept instructing them to take their seats, but they had already been instructed by the Minister of the Pranks Committee to do otherwise.  
  
As they began to file out of the transfigurations classroom, following a flustered and agro McGonagall, they heard the shouting coming towards them. Then they saw in the distance, rushing towards them as fast as his little feet could carry him, Professor Flitwick. And he was being chased by more than a dozen second year students all chanting furiously, taking their involvement in one of the boys' pranks  _very_ seriously.  
  
‘Professor! Professor!’ Flitwick called out, waving his little arm towards McGonagall.  
  
‘Come on Professor Flitwick, your stature doesn’t matter. Even if your two feet tall, your six foot on our ladder!’ The second years all shouted, trying their best not to laugh.  
  
‘Professor!’ Flitwick fell into step with McGonagall who was frozen on the spot. ‘Professor the students! The students have gone mad!’  
  
‘Tiny little Flitwick! You’re a size two, maybe three! But don’t let your size concern you, you should be happy as can be!’  
  
‘Professor!’ Flitwick grabbed McGonagall’s robes trying to catch his breath, ‘they won’t stop calling me  _little_!’   
  
The groups joined with the seventh years all chanting about McGonagall’s stern temper and unfailing perfection, and the second years all going into detail about Flitwick’s height. Out on the grounds there were third years chanting about Kettleburn’s reckless regard for magical creatures and remaining limbs he still had. There were fifth years creating a ruckus in the dungeons with Professor Slughorn, going into detail about his quite frankly ridiculous regard for the names of students that were not his favourites and the fact that he was currently banned from the three broomsticks.   
  
Upstairs there were sixth years chanting to Professor Vector about her strict teachings and potentially erotic fantasies about numbers and all things alike. Professor Sprout would no doubt be having a laugh with the fourth years about her crazed love of killer plants and her jovial take on their attributes. The entirety of Hogwarts, even the students out sick would be currently chanting to Madam Pomfrey and those with a spare on their timetable would be hounding Madam Pince.   
  
None of the staff were forgotten, of course, because Peeves had been instructed to annoy Filch and James had allowed him to come up with his chants on his own, whereas the rest had been thought up between he and Remus. Hogwarts was in disarray.   
  
As Flitwick clutched onto McGonagall’s robes and looked up to her fretfully, and the chants continued about his failing statue, the unthinkable happened.  
  
Professor McGonagall broke into laughter. Remus’s jaw dropped as they all watched on as Professor McGonagall pointed down at Flitwick and laughed.  
  
‘By heavens Fillius, stand up for yourself man. You’re going to let a bunch of twelve year olds chase you out of your own classroom?’ McGonagall laughed at the sight around them, and the chanting stopped only briefly as every student burst into laughter.   
  
Remus turned to look at Sirius. Their plan had succeeded. For just a moment, Sirius had seemed to forget his troubles, and he was smiling. Laughing even. James had him around the neck and Lily was to his other side, smiling like it was Christmas, with a hand placed on his chest as she laughed along with them.   
  
‘The Pranks Committee strikes again!’ Peter announced, laughing beside Remus as they heard Professor Sprout and Professor Kettleburn coming through into the great hall, and Professor Slughorn’s hearty laughter was heard coming up the stairs from the dungeons, all laughing along while their students stayed true to their mission and continued on with their chanting.   
  
‘Well we can’t give them all a detention!’ Sprout yelled up over the first floor bannister to where McGonagall was still laughing at Flitwick.   
  
McGonagall’s laughter dried up so fast Remus felt a shudder erupt down his back.  
  
‘Can’t we?’ McGonagall stared around at all the students close to her and the chanting stopped instantly. There was a silence over the entrance hall as steps were heard coming down the grand staircase, no doubt from the upper levels coming to join the crowd.  
  
James and Remus caught each other’s eyes as Marlene fell in beside Remus.  
  
‘Oh honestly, of course we can’t.’ McGonagall admitted allowing her laughter to return, ‘but my students, ten inches on the importance of concentration in regards to conjuration on my desk before your next class… you’re all dismissed!’ She continued to laugh at Flitwick as the students all began to cheer. Similar requests were being made from the surrounding Professors, as they took McGonagall’s lead.  
  
They couldn’t have hoped for a better result.   
  
‘Professor, are you perhaps ill?’ James asked which Remus thought was a bit of a test of her patience. But then he realised it was probably to keep Sirius laughing, who was still captured in his grasp.   
  
‘I was young once, too, Potter.’  
  
‘Whoa, really?’ Sirius stared at Professor McGonagall in disbelief, ‘did your parents call you Professor McGonagall, too?’ Everyone around them burst into laughter while McGonagall just shook her head at him.  _Mission complete_ , Remus thought.   
  
‘You did good, Lupin.’ Marlene said to his left and when Remus turned to look at her, she was looking over at Sirius. Sirius still laughing with James, Lily, Mary and Peter and Remus felt complete.  
  
‘Well, I’m not the Minister of the Pranks Committee for nothing, McKinnon.’ Remus turned to give her a cheeky grin. Marlene just slammed an elbow into his ribcage causing him to double over in pain.  
  
‘You’re a dork. Don’t get a big head.’ She ended before walking over to join their friends. Remus watched her, while rubbing his side of the residual sting. He sighed heavily watching her as she messed up Sirius’s hair and Lily attacked her with a hug in their happiness of getting out of class.  
  
It was very unfortunate that he had to let Marlene go. He was quite sure he was in love with her. And nothing hurt more than knowing the person you loved was three feet away from you, but you couldn’t be with them. For now, he would just be happy knowing she was getting back to her old self. 

*

A full month went by since the boys had managed to break Sirius out of his coma. No one had heard from Ali. Her cousins had returned to school three weeks ago with little to say on the matter. Sirius at least was voicing his concern now instead of just keeping it to himself. The boys all liked Sirius better when he was up front about the way he was feeling. Sirius just wouldn’t have been Sirius if he wasn’t constantly complaining about something. One night when the boys were up in their dormitory, laying on their fronts and reading over their course work and, in James case, plays for their upcoming quidditch match, James voiced a concern.  
  
‘You know Padfoot, I’ve just realised something.’ James turned to look at him while the others stopped what they were doing. ‘Your middle name being Orion… well, that makes you initials S.O.B, doesn’t it?’  
  
‘Well done, Prongs.’ Sirius rolled his eyes at him.  
  
‘No, I mean, your initials. They spell out  _sob_.’ James smiled, discarding his doodling and sitting up, ‘well it’s fitting, isn’t it?’  
  
‘How is it  _fitting_?’  
  
‘No, he’s absolutely right,’ Remus agreed, sitting up also, ‘you’re certainly the most emotional out of all of us.’ Remus nodded, and received a scrunched up bit of parchment straight to the head.  
  
‘Sod off.’ Sirius tried to go back to his NEWT’s practice.  
  
‘There he goes again, crying like a baby.’ Peter shook his head, ‘do you need a hug, Sob?’  
  
‘Shut it!’ Sirius sat up now.  
  
‘Oh, Wormtail! There  _you_  go again, hurting Sob’s feelings.’ James shook his head.  
  
‘How am  _I_  the emotional one? Wasn’t it you who cried just last week because Lily refused to wear your quidditch jersey when you asked her?’  
  
‘It was supposed to be a testament to our love!’ James argued.  
  
‘It hasn’t been washed since the last game, Prongs!’ Sirius laughed at him.  
  
‘Sob’s the one that was sobbing over Lily cutting his hair too short two weeks ago.’ Peter joined in nodding matter-of-factly.  
  
‘Hey! You don’t know the emotional damage of a bad haircut, Wormtail. Your hair always looks shit.’  
  
‘There he goes, lashing out at others in his grief-stricken state.’ Remus shook his head as the boys all chucked at Sirius’s expense.  
  
‘Sobby-sob, we understand you. It’s okay to cry. We’re here for you, mate.’ James glided fluidly from his bed over to Sirius’s and pat him on the back. Remus and Peter started to laugh when Sirius grabbed at James and it broke into a full-blown play fight as they rolled off the bed and tried to get one over the other.  
  
But then the dorm door burst open and Lily rushed inside, ‘shut up!  **Shut up**!’ She demanded and all attention settled on her.  
  
‘Sirius, it’s Ali. Ali’s back.’ The stunted sentence completely obliterated any happiness from to room and Sirius was on his feet faster than any of the boys had ever seen him. He was out the door with Lily before any of them were even standing. 


	59. Anger and bargaining

Chaos was an understatement in regards to the emotions smacking around Ali’s head. She was confused and broken. She was filled with a burning rage yet lethargic at the same time. She cried for nearly two weeks without stopping. Not sobbing, no, but her eyes filled with tears every time she saw a picture of her mother hugging her father. Or others of Kanika swinging her younger self around at the beach. The little moving figures were a permanent reminder of what she had lost. After a while she started turning them down so there was less painful remanets’ around every corner of the house.  
  
The morning she had finally decided to go home, after James had helped her realise she was allowed to feel the way she was, she was taken upstairs by Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey. She had gone into her dorm only to find herself subjected to more solemn looks from her unsavoury dorm mates. She couldn’t handle their faces. Every one of them was the same. So sad. So full of sympathy. She came down the stairs only to be met with her friend’s faces, baring the same look. She’d had enough. She couldn’t handle one more sympathetic stare.  
  
So when Sirius gave her that same face, that same “I’m so sorry” face, she put her foot down.  
  
James seemed to be the only one that wasn’t amplifying her inner hatred. It was strange. Out of all the friends she had made over the last year, she really expected James Potter to be the last one she would tolerate in such a situation. But that night, as he ignored protocol and broke down her barriers to hug her- instead of apologising every thirty seconds, and just saying “I know” in its place. It was the only thing that made it real.  
  
When she got home that morning, the realness of the situation increased tenfold. Her father was just as much of a mess as she was. Her grandparents were there. Grandma Anne was with her father. Grandpa Tucker was with her baby brother in the kitchen, cooking.  
  
Ali nearly lost her footing when Tucker leapt off the counter and ran at her. He wrapped his arms around her thighs and she fell to her knees to envelop him in a bone crushing hug. He was okay. He looked incredibly confused, but he was okay.  
  
 _‘Mum’s gone.’_ He said the words so calmly but with a frown on his face.  _‘They said she was saving some muggle kids. She saved them, though. They’re okay.’_  He just smiled at her. At that moment Ali felt like she was going to vomit again. She had to bring Tucker into her arms and knelt there clutching him until she recovered from the pain radiating in her chest. Her grandfather came over to wrap his arms around them on the kitchen floor and that first day home was spent in a sweet, mourning silence.   
  
Then the other side of their family showed up.  
  
There were more “sorry’s” thrown about than ever before as their enormous middle-eastern extended family flooded the house. The only bearable one was her cousin Misha who just sat by her through most of it, silently. Nay was even quiet for the most part. Of course her mother’s side of the family had  _very_ ancient customs concerning burial. Even muggles believed their traditions to be archaic. It meant that the funeral had to move back to where Aaliyah’s grandparents had lived, and Kanika was born, in Cairo.   
  
They never much visited that side of the family. Cairo was far too chaotic for their little family’s liking. Ali found herself thanking a higher power for the fact that her eldest uncle had taken a handful of his younger siblings to live with him in England when he left home. That handful included Kanika and her favourite Aunty Lula.  
  
Through most of the chatter, Ali had stayed quiet with Tucker on her lap. Her father and paternal grandparents were by her sides. But when her aunts and uncles began discussing traditional mummification, Ali lost it. An intense anger took over and she screamed about barbaric traditions and had to be subdued by her little brother’s upset form, pulling on her hand. In the end they settled for allowing the magical spells to be cast over her casket and to burying Kanika with the specific grave goods required, in the family tomb.  
  
Weeks went by and the family member’s visits began to dwindle. Most of their nights were spent the same way. Christian would come in to find Ali and Tucker laying together on Ali’s bed and would curl up with them. When Tucker would fall asleep, they would talk about the strangest things. Tedious Ministry gossip. Nothing involving the war. Just things like Christian’s boss, Barty Crouch, going a little bit haywire with power. Then there was the magical family that lived down the road with the growing number of tiny redheaded children. They had just had a third. They would also quiz each other on famous animagus’ of the century. Any topic at all that didn’t require mentioning the gaping hole ripped into their lives.  
  
Ali enjoyed pretending, for any possible amount of time, that her mother wasn’t gone. Pretending like she was just on a late shift made it easier. But the delusion never lasted long. It hurt the most when she would wake up in the morning with her father on one side and her brother on the other, and the missing part of their family wasn’t standing in the door way smiling at them.   
  
Those were the mornings she would creep out of bed to go downstairs and cry. Because the only person she had to be angry with… was herself.   
  
When she finally decided to come back to school over a month later, she was  _lost_. She didn’t feel like reading. She didn’t feel like learning or doing any of her homework. She didn’t want to see anyone. Sirius had written to her over and over asking how she was and giving her kind words. She eventually stopped reading his messages. Everything seemed to be painted in shades of grey. It felt like her heart was barely beating and she had  _herself to blame_.  
  
So when she got back to school, already missing her little brother's grip on her clothing, she seemed undeniably filled with hot,  _burning_  rage. But in the same breath, she was tired and wanted nothing more than for the school year to end so she could sleep for the entire summer. It was very confusing. When she walked inside her dorm she noticed three of the four girls were present. The least desirable three.  
  
‘Hey, Adams.’ Bianca gave her a weak smile. Ali didn’t respond. Her blank expression spoke legions for her and so she just moved on hoping that was a one off and that these girls at least would go back to ignoring her.  
  
She put Snowball down with a collection of other bits and pieces and stashed away her mother’s last letter in her bedside drawer. She took out her wand and cast the  _colloportus_  spell non-verbally. She looked back at her dorm mates. Maria was frozen, cleaning her glasses, staring at Ali. Bianca was standing in front of her bed, staring at Ali. And Anna was midway through pulling her brush through her hair, would you believe it, staring at Ali.   
  
Ali huffed a sigh and made to leave the room. She heard scuffling and when she turned around at the stairs, all the girls were following her. She tried to ignore it but as she got to the bottom most staircase, Anna called out her name.  
  
‘Wait! Adams.’ Anna got to the last step and Ali spared a glance around to see everyone in the common room. She just  _had_  to pick a Sunday night to return.   
  
‘What do you want, Cox?’ Ali spat out glaring at her. She could see Lily’s flaming red hair emerging at the base of the boys’ stairs and soon after it came every mop of hair belonging to the seventh year delinquents she had come to call friends.   
  
‘I just… I wanted to-’ Anna was looking around and stepped in closer to Ali. Bianca and Maria stayed on the stairs, watching on. ‘I wanted to say, I’m sorry.’  
  
Ali felt something suddenly snap in her head. How many times would she have to hear the word  _sorry?_ She drew in a deep, loud breath as she stared at Anna. She felt a twitch pull around her mouth. Her breathing became laboured before she opened her mouth to reply.  
  
‘You’re  _sorry_?’ The words had quite literally lost all meaning to her, ‘You’re  _sorry_. Sorry?’ Anna had taken a slight step back. Ali hadn’t even realised she was advancing.   
  
‘What are you sorry for,  _Anna_? Please. Elaborate.’ Ali was trying her utmost to calm her breathing, but she couldn’t quell the intensity of her emotions. She was almost shaking.  
  
‘Uh- I’m- Uh- just sorry. I’m just sorry.’ Anna stuttered.  
  
‘Sorry? You’re sorry. Well fucking  _congratulations,_ **Anna.** You’re sorry! You’re fucking  _sorry_! Look at that. What are you sorry for, Anna? What are you  _fucking_  sorry for, Anna? Are you sorry for being a pompous fucking bitch to me for the last  _six years_? Are you sorry for the countless times I’ve had to console first years, crying in the girls' bathrooms, because you told them they were fat or ugly? Are you sorry about that?  
  
               ‘Are you sorry for putting frog spawn in my sheets in third year because Adam King asked  _me_  to Hogsmeade instead of  _you_? What about back in second year when you made Bianca cut her hair short because you two looked too alike and you had to be the prettier one? Are you  **sorry for that**!? What about the time you accused me of being a lesbian because I told you to leave Lily Evans alone, because you couldn’t handle the fact that James Potter liked her over  _you_? ARE YOU SORRY FOR THAT!?’ Ali raised her hands and smacked them into Anna’s shoulders, causing her to wack up against the wall behind her.  
  
‘Ali!’ Someone called behind her but she wasn’t done.  
  
‘What about the time you were laughing at me on the platform because my mother was yelling at me!’ Tears started to form in her eyes now and the people speaking behind her stopped, ‘are you sorry for that? Are you sorry for making me scream at my mother? Are you sorry for telling  _half the school_  even my mother had to watch out for me, because I was out of control? **Are you fucking sorry for that!?** ’ Ali watched on as Anna fumbled over broken parts of words as her tongue got tied over and over again. She was so  _angry_. This girl, this  _stupid girl_ , had been the reason she had turned around to her mother and screamed at her. This stupid girl's merciless laughter had been the cause of that fight. It was the reason Ali’s last words to Kanika had been telling her she was a bad mother.   
  
She actually  _heard_  something snap this time and before she knew it she was on top of her pathetic dorm mate’s chest pulling at her hair and slapping her in the face while tears streamed down her cheeks.  
  
It didn’t take long before someone was pulling her off and by the time she was on the other side of the room, the entire common room was in heated chatter all around them.  
  
‘Adams, what’s gotten into you?’ James’s voice came from her left but when she wiped her eyes, the first person that swam into her recovering vision was Sirius. His hands were still firmly around her arms from where he had pulled her off Anna and over to an unoccupied nook. His face was concerned. His pale eyes were lit up with worry. His skin looked like powdered snow. He was staring directly into her very soul.   
  
Ali’s subsiding heart rate picked right back up again after registering their closeness. She hadn’t seen his face in over a month. Well, she hadn’t seen his face in person that is. She quickly averted her eyes and looked down at their feet. She had a black pair of shoes on, but Sirius’s feet were bare where his pyjama bottoms covered his ankles. That’s when she realised, as her eyes wandered up, his top half was also uncovered. She quickly forced her gaze to return to the floor.  
  
Everyone was talking around her. After the last month, Ali had learnt to completely tune people out. It was probably a trait she had been developing since her first year at Hogwarts, but she had certainly perfected it now.   
  
‘Can you all just  _shut up_?’ Sirius’s voice. She felt her breath catch a little. She’d forgotten the tone he could take when he was being serious. His voice got deeper. It made her cheeks flush as she kept her attention on the floor. She wanted to hit herself. How could she be feeling like this? It wasn’t okay.  
  
‘That brat had it coming.’ Lily said beyond James.  
  
‘That  _brat_  is a student, Lily. Have you forgotten you’re Head Girl?’ James responded. Ali was barely listening.   
  
‘Ali’s a prefect. She could get in trouble for that, Lily.’ Remus chastised, ‘someone go and talk to the brat and make sure she’s not going to go to McGonagall.’  
  
‘I’ll go!’ Peter offered. As they all spoke around her, the rage within her started to ebb. Her breathing evened out and she shut her eyes, just listening. Lily was standing up for her while Remus and James seemed to be the voices of reason. Peter had disappeared and Marlene’s voice could now be heard.  
  
‘Adams, all I can say is, right on.’  
  
‘Marlene.’ Remus warned. Ali ignored them. She ignored them directly but allowed their chatter to fill her head and cast away her inner turmoil.   
  
Then she felt Sirius’s grip on her arms tighten and she winced a little, forgetting she was still being held prisoner.   
  
‘Ali?’  
  
‘Don’t.’ Ali stopped him, opening her eyes. Everyone else around them stopped now and settled for listening to her words. She swallowed. ‘Just- don’t.’ She stared into his pale eyes and saw the look. That look. The look of concern. The look of pained sympathy. She  _hated_  that look.  
  
She pulled out from Sirius’s grip and walked away from all of them. She bypassed Peter, talking to Anna and the other two, and didn’t bother to apologise. She blocked out every obstacle and made her way up the stairs, in through the doorway and over to her bed. Snowball was curled up already. She didn’t even bother changing. She just kicked off her shoes and closed her curtains around her bed before shutting her eyes and praying that tonight she would dream of a simpler time. 

*

‘You’ve been doing a very good job of it.’ Ali said, a week on, in potions class.  
  
‘Of what?’ Regulus asked. He had reclaimed his old seat beside her and his eyes were not moving from his notes.  
  
‘Avoiding me.’ Ali said easily. Since her mother passed, she felt different. She felt less inclined to keeping her thoughts to herself. And less inclined to care about the consequences.   
  
‘Who said I was avoiding you? Maybe I just thought you didn’t need the help anymore?’ Regulus offered, still not bothering to capture her gaze.  
  
‘And what? Now I do?’ Ali was ready to fight him based on his reply. She found comfort in arguments with people since she had come back to school. She couldn’t explain it. But picking fights and arguing with people was taking her mind off the arguments going on in her head.  
  
‘No.’ Regulus answered, and turned to lock his eyes on her own, ‘But I believe the other students need help avoiding you. And I am a prefect, after all.’ He grinned at her, then went back to his work. For the first time in over a month Ali was speechless.   
  
When Regulus had sat down next to her again, she’d wondered if it was for the same reason as last time. Last time he had told her he’d taken up a spot beside her because she looked like she needed it. It had helped him out, too. But it was for her benefit. When he’d sat beside her this time, she thought it might have been in regards to her recent fall outs with, now, three other students.   
  
She wasn’t sure what had gotten into her. But she was just so filled with rage so many of the things she used to chastise people for, she was doing without a second thought.   
  
Time and time again, students had approached her with their condolences. She had hexed two and kicked the third out of the chair beside her in Transfiguration class. That one happened to be Dirk Creswell. And boy it made her feel good. McGonagall had looked incredibly strange that day. Her expression had all but screamed ‘justice!’. But then she had just put a hand on Ali’s shoulder and told her not to do it again.   
  
She hadn’t gotten in trouble for the boils she cast on one student, or the body-binding curse she cast on the other. She just couldn’t hear, one more time, the words “I’m so sorry for your loss”. So now when students approached her, she was making examples of them. She hoped it would make them all stop looking at her. She just wanted to go back to being invisible. She didn’t want to be the student being gawked at for dating Sirius Black. She wanted even less to be the student being gawked at because her mother was dead.  
  
So when Regulus Black grinned at her, and cracked a joke- well it was a nice change. She worked for the rest of the class beside him without as much as a word spoken between them. When the bell rang Ali looked over at Regulus and he looked back at her.  
  
‘Change becomes you, Adams.’ He smiled at her again.  
  
‘Well, you’re just as ugly as ever.’ Ali shrugged and gave him a rather nonchalant expression. Regulus actually laughed.  
  
‘This new side of you is  _charming_.’ Regulus gathered up his things and packed them into his bag. He leaned into Ali as she made to walk by him on her way to the door, ‘And you shouldn’t lie, Adams. I have it on good authority that you seem to admire Black family traits.  _Very_ much so.’  
  
A sour look appeared on Ali’s face as Regulus laughed at his well delivered taunt. He left the room before her, following his group of friends. As much as she wanted to punch him, she was still happy that he wasn’t tip-toeing around her like so many others.   
  
Since her handful of run in’s with other students, people in the halls started parting a way for her. She made her way up from potions class and her sixth year peers quite literally kept their distance. She looked towards the great hall and decided against it. She’d been trying to avoid the seventh years all week. One of them in particular. So instead she climbed her way up to the third floor and stood out the front of the library entrance.  
  
It had been a while since she’d hid in these walls. She made her way inside and when she came across Madam Pince, the librarian looked up at her with a frown.  
  
‘Evening, dear.’ She nodded to her. Ali nodded back and kept going. It wasn’t as bad as the ‘sorry’ remarks. But the look she gave her was the same and the rest. Everyone pitied Ali. Poor Ali, she lost her mother. Poor Ali.   
  
‘No.’ She spoke aloud to herself, lost in her own thoughts again, as her eyes started to water.  
  
‘No?’ Someone replied and Ali jumped back, startled.  
  
Sirius was sitting at her table, alone. Ali just stared at him for a moment. She turned around, fully ready to leave the premises, hoping that that would work. But Sirius was getting wiser to her tactics now and had a hand around her wrist before she could take more than two steps.  
  
‘Ali.’ He started.  
  
‘No.’ Ali refused to look at him.   
  
‘ _Ali_.’ He took on a more demanding tone. It was a step up from the previous one. But it still wasn’t what she wanted to hear.  
  
‘No!’ She tried to yank her hand away, but Sirius was clearly getting fed up with the lack of communication. She had managed to avert him for a week at school. She had ignored him for a month while he had written to her over and over. She just couldn’t deal with this.  
  
‘Ali! Talk to me!’ He snapped.   
  
‘No!’ She ripped her wrist from his grasp and strode hotly from the library in search of silent, apathetic sanctuary.

*

A couple of nights later, Ali was standing at the portrait hole exit waiting on James and Lily. They were arguing over whether or not to allow Ali to take over Lily’s shift for rounds.   
  
‘Acting like she’s too fragile for daily activities isn’t helping anyone.’ James’s heated whispers reached over to Ali’s ears.  
  
‘James, she’s not ready for it.’  
  
‘And I say she is. Just take this chance to study more for your NEWT’s. That’s why she’s doing it. Just accept the courtesy.’ James argued. For a moment the two just stared at each other, before Lily huffed a breath and shooed him away. Refusing to leave her on any kind of bad terms though, he snatched her hand up and pulled her into a kiss, before he dodged her retaliation and ran over to Ali with a smile.  
  
‘Come on.’ He said, pushing her through the portrait hole and out into the corridor.  
  
‘Thanks.’ Ali said, happy that she had some kind of duty to fill her time. While she had currently lost her vigour towards reading textbooks, she was going crazy with her thoughts.   
  
‘For pulling you into having to patrol the halls? Oh, you’re welcome. Don’t mention it.’ James winked at her and started to laugh.  
  
‘You know what I mean.’ Ali insinuated and she pushed him as they walked along.   
  
James nodded a reply as he pulled her into a hug, ‘I know.’   
  
Ali only tensed up slightly from the contact, but they walked along in silence for a while, on their way to the grand staircase. Ali felt a harsh pang in her heart from the kindness James was bestowing on her, yet again. She didn’t deserve it.   
  
‘Adams-’ James started, sounding strained, ‘I know you’re going through a world of pain. And I’m here for you, whatever you need. Things to keep you occupied. Not treating you like a wounded hippogriff. I’m on board.’ James stopped her at the staircase and looked her in the eye.  
  
‘But-’ He took a deep breath, ‘what the hell are you doing with Sirius? He’s going mad. I can’t keep lying to him and saying you need space. This-’ he indicated back and forth between them ‘-shows me you can handle talking. You need to talk to him.’   
  
Ali stared back at James. She knew he was right. It was so refreshing to have someone stand before her, telling it to her straight. She sighed. She had seen Sirius here and there and he looked terrible. It wasn’t her intention to hurt him. Far from it. She was just so angry with herself, she was even keeping her contact with James to a minimum. But he seemed to take personal boundaries about as well as his regard towards school rules. Sirius on the other hand was a little more polite.   
  
Thinking about the reason she was avoiding Sirius made her guilt levels rise towards James also. She nodded to him, to show him she agreed. Her words were currently lost to her.  
  
‘You’re okay.’ Instead of questioning her, he seemed to be informing her of her own state of being. His hands came up to close over her ears and he pulled her closer to place a kiss to her forehead. After that he left her alone and descended the stairs to start his rounds.  
  
When did James Potter get so wise?  
  
She headed off down the stairs after regaining her thoughts. It wasn’t more than twenty minutes into her rounds down in the dungeons that she heard a scuffle in progress. She crept up to the corner and peered her head around to see what was happening.  
  
‘You’ll hear about this Black!’ Mulciber bellowed over to Sirius from where he stood further down the dank corridor.  
  
‘Oh, will I?’ Sirius sounded confident and boastful. For a moment Ali forgot what year it was, and was reminded of all the times she had found Sirius Black at the back end of some kind of rule breaking or duels in the corridors, with every and any house occupant.  
  
‘You won’t have the protection of this school forever.’ Wilkes hissed. For some reason, Ali wanted to watch this particular argument play out. So she kept herself hidden.  
  
‘Yeah, neither will you.’ Sirius spat with a grin. That grin. It was the same grin he had given her the night they had caught Bulstrode out for stealing polyjuice potion and making out with Anna Cox in Sirius’s form.   
  
‘You better go to Madam Pomfrey before his head gets any bigger.’ Sirius finished and that’s when Ali noticed Avery nursing his engorged head. Wilkes and Mulciber both helped him as they turned towards the spot Ali was hiding and came towards her. She quickly pushed herself up against the wall and the dumb brutes ran straight passed her.   
  
Once they were up the stairs and out of sight she peered back around the corridor and heard muffled weeping.  
  
‘Hey, it’s okay. They’re gone.’ She heard Sirius say. He was knelt down by a tiny Hufflepuff first year, ‘you’ll remember that spell, yeah?’ Sirius asked him.  
  
The little boy nodded, rubbing his forearm.   
  
‘Is your arm okay?’ Sirius asked, examining it. The little boy just nodded again. ‘You better make a run for it then. Rounds have already started, you don’t want to get caught out of bed. The prefects around here are ruthless.’  
  
The little boy uttered a fumbled mess of thank you’s and such before heading off towards where Ali was, still tucked away, watching. When he came around the corner, he noticed Ali and froze. She brought a finger up to her lips to keep him silent then smiled at him. His grin back was so wide, he seemed to forget he was still nursing his arm.   
  
As he nodded and made his way off in the direction of the kitchens and out of sight, Ali turned back to see what Sirius was doing. Instead of spying on him though, she came face to face with his piercing eyes and swallowed.  
  
‘Detention?’ Sirius asked, looking her up and down.   
  
‘No.’ Ali shook her head and made to turn around to leave.  
  
‘Hey!’ Sirius demanded, coming into step with her and striding to keep up, ‘Ali!’ he was certainly sounding less and less tolerant of her unexplained emotions.  
  
‘Sirius, I can’t.’ Ali felt a knot catch in her throat.  
  
‘You can’t  _what_?’ Sirius asked, pulling her to a stop in the entrance hall. ‘What, Ali? What can’t you do? You need to give me something here. Because if it’s you can’t handle me right  _now,_  that’s fine. I can wait. But if it’s you can’t do “this” anymore,’ he gestured between them, ‘then I need to know, so I can leave you alone.’ Something in his voice cracked and he suddenly looked away.   
  
‘Sirius…’ Ali watched him as he kept his focus directed anywhere but on her. She wanted to reach out and touch him so badly. She wanted to hug him like they used to. But she refused to allow herself such a comfort when she felt she didn’t deserve it. But her resolve was cracking. And the innocent way Sirius had his fists balled up by his sides at the moment… she wasn’t sure how much longer she would last.  
  
‘I’m sorry about your mum, Ali.’ Sirius looked up at her finally, ‘I  _am_ -’  
  
‘No.’ Ali breathed out. Why did he have to ruin it? She took a step back. ‘Stop it. Just- just  _stop it_.’  
  
‘Stop  _what_? What have I done?’ Sirius grabbed her wrist again instinctively even though she hadn’t yet begun her retreat, ‘Can you please just talk to me? I can’t stand you avoiding me and turning me away.’ Sirius’s voice held so much pain it made Ali’s eyes sting.  
  
‘Stop saying sorry.’ She said as tears brimmed on her eyelids.  
  
‘But-’  
  
‘No. Why are you sorry? Why? Why do I deserve a sorry?’ Ali pleaded, staring across at him in the dimly lit entrance hall as a suit of armour shut its helmet of its own accord.   
  
‘I don’t know, Ali. It’s just what you say.’ He shrugged seeming confused.  
  
‘Well it’s  _stupid_.’ Ali tried to wipe her eyes, ‘I don’t deserve a sorry. I don’t  _deserve a sorry_!’ She reiterated in just over a whisper, as her emotions started to affect her voice. For a while there was a silence around them. She had been trying so hard to avoid this. ‘I  _blamed_  you.’ She admitted, looking back up at him. Sirius just blinked at her. He was undeniably confused now.   
  
‘I actually tried to  _blame_ you. And Potter. And that stupid cow, Anna Cox. I blamed everyone. Anyone.’ She explained, now unable to stop. As the words spewed from her mouth, so did the tears from her eyes.  She averted his gaze again feeling so guilt-ridden. ‘I tried to blame Anna Cox for being the reason I was so embarrassed with- with her! I screamed at her on the platform! And I tried to blame that on Cox. Then I tried to blame Potter! I tried to make out like if I hadn’t stayed for his birthday, I would have gone home to be with her! Maybe then she’d be alive. I tried to blame  _James_! He’s been  _so_  good to me. I can’t even look at him Sirius.’ She was trembling as she shut her eyes trying to ignore what was happening. She had done her best to ignore these overpowering emotions for so long.  
  
‘And you.’ She opened her eyes to look back at him, ‘I tried to blame you, too. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have had the argument with her. I would have gone home for the holidays. I might still have my- my-’ her words failed her.  
  
‘Ali.’ Sirius’s voice was kind.  
  
‘No.’ Ali warned him quietly, but powerfully, ‘I don’t want your sympathy.’ Ali pushed a hand up to wipe her eyes with the sleeve of her school jumper, ‘the only person that deserves any blame is me.’ She finally admitted aloud. These thoughts had been plaguing her for weeks now. All the sorry’s. All the sad faces. She didn’t deserve sympathy. She deserved disgust and repugnance. ‘The only person I have to blame for everything that’s happened is me!’  
  
               ‘So no, I don’t want to hear one more fucking  _sorry_. Even if it is what you fucking  _say_.’  
  
Sirius had been awfully quiet.  
  
‘Why do you deserve the blame?’ He asked, setting her wrist free only to softly take her hand. They heard Peeves clattering down the staircase and so Sirius pulled her from the hall over to a more secluded corridor. ‘Why would you deserve any blame?’ Sirius asked again, as genuine as was possible.  
  
‘Me. My-’ Ali choked a little on her words as Sirius ushered her up against a corridor wall. Her back met with the stone and she proceeded to slide down to her knees, ‘-my lasts words to her-’ Ali looked up at Sirius desperately. Her eyes flickered back and forth between his crystal clear, sympathetic ones.   
  
‘I don’t deserve any sympathy, because my last words to my m-mother,’ she had to swallow the pain in her throat before she could continue, ‘were that she was a bad one! I was too proud to apologise in time! I didn’t go home because I was stubborn! What if- what if I had gone home?’ She whispered desperately, clinging to the front of Sirius’s robes now.  
  
‘What if I was at home and for some reason she stayed home with me that night. What if that was the difference between her living and d-’ Ali froze. She was in too much pain to continue. Tears were streaming from her eyes. She was a mess. She hadn’t let herself crumple like this back at home. Discussions about little-redheaded boys running around the neighbourhood were more important. But for some reason… for some reason it was all coming out now.  
  
‘Ali,’ Sirius reached up and cupped both his hands around her face, releasing the grip he had taken on her shoulders when he had knelt down before her. He dragged each of his thumbs over her cheeks as she kept her eyes shut tight, ‘what if you went home and she still died? What if you sent that letter long before, and she still died? What if you never dated me, but your mum still died?’ he asked.  
  
Ali was still choking on her sobs, but she slowly opened her eyes as he continued to wipe away her falling tears.  
  
‘You can plague yourself with “what ifs” until the bicorns come home, Ali. It doesn’t change the fact that a  _terrible_  thing happened. Your mum died. And it hurts enough already having lost her. Do you really deserve beating yourself up over it, too?’  
  
A silence rang around them as they stared at one another.  
  
‘I should have apologised sooner.’ Ali looked away feeling an intense pain penetrating her chest at the nagging thought that had been in the back of her head since Dumbledore had said “it’s your mother”.  
  
Sirius tightened his grip on her face and pulled her chin back up so she was looking at him. The laboured breathing due to her crying could be heard all the way down into the entrance hall.  
  
‘Ali your mum  _loved_  you. She adored you. And the last thing you want is the people you love to be in this kind of pain.’ He explained, ‘Of course you’re going to hurt for a while. She was your mum. But if I can vouch for her, she would  _not_ want you kicking yourself over “what ifs”. You don’t want the people you love to suffer.’  
  
Sirius glided a thumb over her cheek, catching more tears. He stared at her strangely for a moment, taking in every inch of her face. Suddenly he smiled at her and leant forward to place a chaste kiss on her cheek where another trail of tears was escaping.  
  
When he pulled back, and Ali could see the glistening, salty remnants on his lips she broke. She completely let go of any attempt to hold back her emotions and cried loudly and grabbed a hold or his robes. She pulled him down into her arms and dug her nails into his back. For a moment Sirius seemed shocked as she pushed up onto her knees and pressed her body into his. Just for a moment.  
  
It didn’t take him long to close his arms around her and bury his face in the nook of her neck, allowing her to continue crying. He didn’t let go of her until she pushed away from him to get a better look at his face.  
  
‘And this-’ Ali spluttered, motioning between them, ‘makes me the guiltiest of all.’ She stared at him desperately. He just looked back, confused again.  
  
‘My mum is gone. My beautiful mum, she’s gone. I can’t wrap my head around it. Sometimes I forget, you know? I forget she’s not here anymore. How are you just supposed to settle into that? For sixteen years she’s always just been there. Was there. And now she’s gone…’ Ali slid her hands over Sirius’s shoulders and down to rest on his ticeps.  
  
‘But instead of thinking constantly about how incredibly fucked up this is. All I can fucking think about  _is you_.’ She admitted staring directly at him. Sirius’s eyes suddenly opened a lot wider. His hair was shorter than usual and fell in the most perfect way around his face. That face she couldn’t get out of her mind.  
  
‘I’m supposed to be in such intense pain. Everyone keeps telling me. And I am. Fuck  _I am_. But when I’m trying to hold it together around Tucker. Or when I need to stop myself from crying. I just think of you.   
  
     ‘You and your stupid hair. And your rule breaking. And the time you thanked me for letting you off detention early.’ Her breath was still hitched, but her tears were now drying, ‘I think about you, coming down to breakfast early just because you wanted to see me. I think about you in the hospital wing, finding me touching your chest. I think about you  _all the time_!’ Ali suddenly slammed her little fists down onto Sirius chest in her anger as more tears formed in her eyes.  
  
‘I’m supposed to be sad. I am sad. But I should be consumed by it. I said such horrible things to my mum… my mum that I will  _never_  see again. And I should be  _consumed_  by that. And every time I start to focus on it- I break away by thinking of you. I- you- you’re just always there.’  
  
‘Ali-’  
  
‘Iloveyou.’ It was rushed and choked out through half a sob but she managed to look directly into his eyes as she said it. There was a silence between them for a moment as she held her fists against his chest and the words slowly sunk into his mind. They stared back at one another and when Sirius went to open his mouth, Ali beat him to it.  
  
‘Don’t!’ She demanded, ‘don’t say anything back. If you say anything back- I’m just going to think it’s because my mother died. And I won’t accept that. But- I just- I needed to say that. I don’t even know if I mean it- I’m sixteen. My mother just died. But I can’t stop thinking about you. And the way you make me feel. I spent so many years wandering around this school, empty. And I-’ she screwed her face up, ‘-I feel whole with you. It feels right being beside you.’  
  
She suddenly slapped a hand up over his mouth and shook her head, ‘Far out I sound pathetic.’  
  
Sirius reached up and pulled her hand away from his mouth and without speaking, leant over and placed a kiss to her lips. As he pulled back, he wiped the remains of tears away from her face and stood up.   
  
He offered a hand down to her and pulled her up to her feet.  
  
‘You’re not pathetic.’ Sirius’s words were calm. A vast change from the beginning of their conversation. ‘I think Prongs can handle rounds with just the other house prefects. You’ve already caught one idiot out of bed.’  
  
Without an explanation, he led her from the corridor back out into the entrance hall to where Peeves was bouncing around off the bannisters. Sirius made some kind of gesture to him, and the poltergeist stared at them for a moment, before going back to what he was doing. They climbed the stairs in silence and when they re-entered the common room, there were still a lot of people around.  
  
Sirius directed her right by them and their sympathetic stares and over towards the boys' stairs. Ali didn’t argue, and when they got into the boys' dorm, Remus and Peter didn’t question their arrival so much as they looked back at each other with a smile.  
  
Sirius threw his blankets and pillows back onto his bed, directed Ali to sit on the bed, then pulled the curtains around before sitting down with her. Silently he got comfortable while Ali watched, then pat his chest, indicating for her to lie down on him. Ali was hesitant for just a moment before she joined him. Once she felt safe, her tears started to fall again. But Sirius just hugged her and continuously placed kisses on her face, any place he could reach.


	60. A change of character

‘Professor! Is he here or not?’ Aaliyah demanded of Professor McGonagall late one morning, after her Transfiguration class.  
  
‘I beg your pardon, Miss Adams. I have told you before and I will tell you again. I am not always informed of the Headmasters comings and goings. Dumbledore is a  _very_  busy man. He may not return to the school for weeks!’ McGonagall relayed for what would be the third time in the last fortnight.   
  
‘He didn’t even come to her funeral!’ Ali shouted, jogging to keep up with McGonagall on her way out of the classroom, ‘He’s known her most of her life. He’s visited our home every holidays. He  _knew_  her.’ Ali had never in her life challenged a teacher at Hogwarts. But she had a mission and she was not going to let this mission go. It was the only thing currently holding her together. Well, that…. and Sirius Black.   
  
‘Adams,’ McGonagall stopped her brisk stride towards the exit of the classroom. It caused Ali to nearly trip over herself as she was trying desperately to keep up. McGonagall turned to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, tenderly, ‘your mother was a good woman. I knew her. Don’t think that anyone is just dismissing your loss. But-’ she drew in a deep breath, ‘Dumbledore  _is_  a busy man. When he returns-’ McGonagall almost looked pained to promise such a thing, ‘I’ll inform you.’  
  
Ali’s face lit up, ‘Thank you, Professor!’  
  
McGonagall watched Ali for a moment, her face still stern. But she then raised her hand from her shoulder and cupped her face very gently, ‘she was a good woman, Adams. You take after her more than you know.’  
  
‘Now,’ she straightened up from her moment’s lapse into something other than an authority figure, ‘off with you! Stop pestering me.’   
  
‘Certainly, Professor!’ Ali chirped and skipped from the room, clutching her book-bag.   
  
She ran down the one set of stairs to the entrance hall where Sirius was waiting for her.   
  
‘Hey, Tiger!’ He greeted her as she barged into him and he enveloped her in a hug. Since the night she had finally broken down and informed Sirius of everything she had been feeling, their relationship had not only gone back to the way it had been previously- it was somehow even stronger.  
  
Things that had once disturbed her, such as students around the school seeing them in any form of embrace, or any contact at all, became lost to her. The only thing that mattered was she truly did feel the most intense emotions towards this boy. And regardless of whether or not he voiced the same feelings back, she could feel how much he cared for her, too.   
  
‘Hi.’ She replied after surfacing from where she had buried her face in his chest, looking up at his face above her.  
  
‘You look awfully confident about something,’ Sirius grinned down at her, carefully pushing a few of the freed curls from her face and back out of her eyes.  
  
‘I’m going to talk to him. The minute he enters this castle, Sirius. He’s going to let us join that society.’ The determination in her voice could be heard all through the entrance hall and Sirius just supplied her with a chuckle in return.  
  
‘Well, you know I’m in.’ He looked so confident and unmistakably happy with her vigour, ‘and Ali- we’re going to find them. Whoever did that to your mother- we’ll find them. And we’ll repay them.’ Suddenly Sirius’s eyes narrowed and became icy. They held a very clear level of contempt and Ali knew he meant what he said.   
  
Sirius was a rash and unreasonable person in a lot of circumstances. The fact that he would become fixated on something like revenge was fitting to his personality traits. And the night he had held her while she cried in his bed with him, he had had the same face. He had told her the same thing. He would find these men, once they had any leads. He would find them, and “repay” them.   
  
Ali wasn’t entirely sure what to feel about that. She didn’t know what she wanted. She kept trying to decide her feelings based on what her mother would have done. But in the end, her anger got the better of her and she began to envision a face. Of a man she had never met. He had plain features and was quite daunting and cruel-looking. Then she would envision herself torturing him. Sometimes it would lull her to sleep at night.   
  
But mostly the lulling to sleep was helped along by Sirius. Since that night, two weeks ago, she had spent every night in his bed. She wanted to be as far away from her dorm mates as possible. Their sudden change of heart to favour her made her ill-at-ease. And the boys were all very accommodating about it.   
  
Both she and Sirius were having uninterrupted sleeps because of it. And for some reason, the simple notion of rebelling, even if it was only slightly by sleeping in a bed that was not her own, was keeping her at peace.   
  
‘They’ll all pay. My mother died saving muggles. And I’ll continue to fight that cause.’ Ali finished while Sirius continued to stare down at her. His icy expression melted away and was replaced with admiration.  
  
‘And that is also something I will stand behind you with.’ He winked at her.  
  
‘You guys are  _cute_. Just look at you.  _Cuuuuuute._ ’ James’s voice interrupted them.  
  
‘Leave them be, Prongs.’ Remus intervened. His voice was short and edgier than usual, ‘they need their alone time to continue on being cute.’  
  
‘We are not  _cute_!’ Ali defied, breaking away from Sirius to challenge Remus personally.  
  
‘You two are  _adorable_.’ James cut in, and Ali swung around to hold her fist up to him.  
  
‘Op! Watch out there, Prongs! She’ll fight you! Or worse, land a hex on you. Her aim is certainly unchallenged.’ Peter joined in, catching up to them.  
  
‘Is this why you had to leave early from herbology? You  _loser_.’ Marlene trotted by them, laughing at Sirius’s expense.  
  
‘Sod off, Blondie. I left early because  _I_  didn’t cause a mess with my Flitterbloom plant and almost get myself strangled. I am superior to you, and thus I leave class earlier.’ Sirius warned her, but Marlene stopped where Ali was standing with Remus.  
  
‘He snuck out when Sprout wasn’t looking. Don’t be fooled.’ Marlene winked at Ali before ambling off towards the great hall.   
  
‘What did she say?!’ Sirius closed the distance between he and the others as Lily and Mary came inside through the open double doors with a few more of their classmates.  
  
‘Only the truth, Padfoot. Let it go.’ Remus rolled his eyes and ushered Ali into the great hall with him, behind Marlene.   
  
Ali wasn’t fussed by the loud happenings within the hall like she usually would be. So many times she had opted to skip lunch, just so she could hide away in the library to think. But thinking was no longer her friend. Being alone with her thoughts wasn’t her preferred method of passing time. She now preferred the noise. Anything to distract her.   
  
As James passed her by, she laid a punch into him, ‘I’m not  _cute_.’  
  
James laughed loudly, rubbing his bicep, ‘oh, if anything you just got cuter. Come  _here_.’   
  
‘No!’ Ali screamed as James wrapped his arms around her and crushed her in a tight hug.  
  
‘You’re just my favourite little sixth year here. So cute and aggressive!’ James teased her as the rest of their crew all took their seats, laughing at the exchange. Ali was trying her hardest to fight against him, but in the end she gave in.   
  
‘Alright, hand her over.’ Sirius requested, pulling Ali from his grasp. Ali immediately tended to her hair and caught her breath and James continued to laugh, going around the table to take his seat beside Lily.  
  
Ali sat down with Sirius, next to Marlene, fully intent on food. The first month after Kanika’s death, she had gone well off food. She ate the bare minimum to stop her stomach grumbling. Food just held no pleasure when she had been that sad. Not to say she was any less sad. She thought of her mother with almost every passing second. But, having Sirius by her side… having everyone by her side, the pain was starting to become manageable.   
  
‘Ali?’ Marlene whispered to her left.  
  
‘Mm?’ Ali replied absentmindedly as she reached out to grab some chicken and an assortment of peas and corn.  
  
‘I heard the boys talking- your mum, she died fighting in this war?’ Marlene asked, still low in Ali’s ear. Ali felt an undeniable pang at the mention of her mother. But it was getting easier, if only slightly.  
  
‘Yeah.’ She replied becoming less interested in her food.  
  
‘I want to help.’ Marlene put her hand over Ali’s and Ali turned to look at her. Her eyes were burning and she seemed so set on her words.  
  
‘My whole family, we want to help. The McKinnon’s, Ali we’re fighters. It’s in our blood. When they heard about your mum, they were outraged. If they knew Dumbledore had a society trying to fight back… well, I want to help, is all I’m trying to say.’  
  
Ali watched her speak and saw the genuine glint in her light eyes. Marlene was a good person. Ali always knew that. She was crass and loud, but she was good. And it lifted Ali’s spirits knowing her mother’s death was possibly inspiring more than just her to fight back against the terror that was going on around them.   
  
‘Yeah,’ Ali nodded. It was not something she would have said three months ago. But lately, anyone that wanted to stand up to Voldemort and his followers, was the kind of person Ali wanted to know, ‘of course.’  
  
The two girls smiled at one another. Marlene gave her hand a squeeze before turning away and tuning into the conversations around them. Their lunch continued on and everyone seemed bright and happy. Ali wasn’t as bright as the others. She still had a lump in her chest and even when she let down her guard and laughed along, suddenly she would see her mother’s face and sober up instantly.   
  
It was as if her friends forced her to forget how sad she was and the instant she was reminded, she felt guilty.   
  
But then there was Sirius. He was catching on faster and faster to her withdrawals. He would notice any sudden mood change and instantly his arm would settle around her. He would pull her in and place a chaste kiss to her cheek and whisper in her ear.  
  
He noticed her faltering attitude and the moment Marlene had turned away, he placed his hand on her knee under the table and leant in to her.  
  
‘I’m here.’ He said softly, before placing a kiss to her cheek, ‘I’m always here.’   
  
Ali turned to look up at his face. He was smiling at her. His calm and caring expression soothed her inner torment and guilt and she reached up to wipe away a lone tear. She smiled back and allowed her head to fall against his shoulder. For some reason, she knew she would be okay. As long as she had Sirius by her side, she would get through this.   
  
It was the last day of classes for everyone. After the weekend, the seventh years would be starting their two week process of N.E.W.Ts and the fifth years would be undergoing their O.W.Ls. Ali wasn’t taking either, and McGonagall had sat her down a few days after she had returned to school and informed her that considering her grades, the school was going to exempt her from her final exams due to her current situation.   
  
At first Ali contemplated it, not feeling much like studying. But since she had been hiding away from the world in the boys’ dorm with Sirius, James, Peter and Remus, her affinity for books was slowly returning to her. She had gone to McGonagall to tell her she would be happy to sit her exams a week ago… and afterwards she had hounded her about Dumbledore’s whereabouts, again.   
  
Ali had felt so content leaning against Sirius through lunch she forgot to eat. She just listened to her friends around her all laughing. She enjoyed the echo of Sirius’s voice rumbling in his chest. It filled her head through the ear she had pressed against him in their embrace. He continued to chat away with James and Peter and no one really pointed out their closeness. When he wasn’t talking, she listened to his heart beat, and the sounds of his breathing. Everything about Sirius, right down to his trouble making,  _everything_  about him had become like oxygen to her.  
  
She had blurted the intense feelings she had been trying to keep under wraps since her mother’s untimely death. But even though she knew she was young and inexperienced in the world of girl-meets-boy, she knew what she felt for Sirius was real.   
  
‘I’ll catch up to you guys.’ She heard Sirius say as the bell rang and Ali finally lifted her head up from Sirius’s chest.   
  
‘Don’t dawdle, Sirius. You realise we’re getting vital information in these classes about out exams.’ Remus warned as students all around them began filing out of the hall and off to their respective classes.  Lily and Mary had come around to stand with Marlene while Remus, James and Peter stood before Sirius where he was still seated beside Ali.  
  
‘I’m actually quite well informed of that, thank you, moody-Moony.’ Sirius quipped and Peter snickered to his other side.  
  
‘Don’t  _test_  me, Sirius. Or I’ll make you worthy of your initials.’ Remus narrowed his eyes in Sirius’s direction as James, Peter and Sirius all “Ooo’d” in response to his empty threat.   
  
‘Remus.’ Ali narrowed her own eyes at him where she sat beside Sirius. She suddenly felt a flare of anger towards him, like she wanted to defend Sirius regardless of how much she cared for the tallest of the four boys.  
  
‘Sorry, Adams. It’s just his time of the month.’ James cut in, grabbing a hold of Remus and pushing him towards the exit, ‘see you in class, Padfoot!’   
  
‘What crawled up his ass and died?’ Ali asked, as she and Sirius stood from their seats and grabbed their bags from under the table, watching as Lily and the girls walked off to catch up with the boys.  
  
‘It’s not his fault. He’s just grumpy because it’s only two days before-’ Sirius started to explain before he abruptly stopped and stared at Ali.  
  
‘What?’ Ali enquired with a raised brow, ‘exams? Does he get moody under pressure?’   
  
Sirius just nodded his head instantly at Ali’s suggestion, ‘yes. Yes he’s terrible under pressure. The profanities fly from his mouth. He’s just a monster in exam block, really. You’d do well to stay away from him.’ Sirius chuckled a little as they walked together from the great hall.  
  
‘What do you have now?’ Sirius asked.  
  
‘Defence against the dark arts.’ Ali replied, ‘If Professor Ogden would actually  _attempt_  teaching us any real defensive magic, I wouldn’t mind it. But he’s honestly the worst professor we’ve ever had.’   
  
‘Don’t bewitch his blackboard duster to smack him in the head every time he says the words “and now”.’ Sirius started, walking with Ali towards the grand staircase, ‘McGonagall doesn’t think it’s nearly as funny as everyone else does.’  
  
Ali laughed, ‘maybe he could teach us a spell to counter it. Then we’d actually  _learn_ something.’   
  
‘Whoa!’ Sirius grabbed onto Ali’s hand and beamed at her broadly where they had stopped on the staircase. A few students had to weave around them, ‘did you just  _laugh_  at my misdeeds?’ Sirius looked utterly impressed as well as excited. Ali couldn’t help but giggle.  
  
‘I’m sure I shouldn’t  _approve_  of it… but it does sound funny.’ Ali shrugged. Before she could register what was happening, Sirius grabbed her and launched her up the stairs so fast her head was spinning.   
  
Once they were out of the throngs of passing students, Sirius’s hand settled on the back of her head only to pull her into a kiss. His lips slammed so hard into her own it stung for a moment. Ali’s heart started to beat faster. It had been a while since Sirius had kissed her with so much force. He had been so kind and gentle over the past fortnight, she had wondered whether he had lost the desire to snog her altogether.  
  
In their current situation, she was clearly very mistaken. The corridor they were in on the third floor was hardly hidden, but neither of them seemed to care. Ali pulled her lifeless arms into action and rested them on the belt of Sirius’s school trousers. His shirt was untucked, and she decided to quickly slip her hands underneath to feel his warm skin underneath.   
  
Sirius exhaled heavily against her mouth as her hands settled under his shirt. He pulled away from her lips to look at her.  
  
‘I just want to touch you.’ He admitted, his eyes flicking back and forth between her own. Ali could barely hear his whisper over how loudly her pulse was beating in her ears.  
  
‘And what brought this on?’ She asked, her breaths heavy but even.   
  
‘I always want to touch you,’ Sirius replied candidly, ‘I just… I  _need_  to right now. I can’t have you pressed up against me the whole of the lunch break and keep ignoring how much I want to kiss you. And touch you,’ he explained, before lowering his head down to her neck and placing a kiss to her clavicle. Ali didn’t really want to argue. They had both spent so much time together over the last two weeks, it was a testament to his politeness that Sirius had managed to kept himself in check. Especially considering they had spent every night in each other’s arms.  
  
He reached a hand up to her shoulder and massaged it gently, close to where his lips were laying light kisses to a sensitive spot of her neck. Ali’s eyes rolled back in her head from the attention she was receiving.  
  
She trailed her hands up higher on his back and moved one of her legs up to rest in the middle of his two. When she gently pressed her thigh up between his legs, Sirius let loose a guttural groan. His hand moved from her shoulder, and traced down her school jumper to rest over her breast and Ali opened her eyes. Sirius had always kept her chest off limits as a form of respect. He pulled away from her neck to look at her, almost as if he were making sure it was okay.   
  
As a response, Ali pulled one arm out from under his shirt and used it to pull his face into hers. She kissed him so ferociously she wouldn’t have been surprised if she had drawn blood. It was almost as if some force had consumed the two of them and they couldn’t refrain from their urges anymore. Feeling his hand closing around her breast made Ali’s breath hitch. She bit down lightly on Sirius’s bottom lip and dragged it through her teeth. The action caused Sirius to moan quite audibly and grab a tighter hold of her.  
  
He suddenly abandoned her chest and secured both his hands at the backs of her thighs. In one swift movement, he had moved them up against a wall and lifted Ali into his arms, smacking her back against the wall behind her. She wrapped her legs around his hips and her arms up around his neck, and their mouths barely broke contact regardless of their actions. Sirius’s fingers were digging into her thighs and Ali’s left hand grabbed a fist full of his hair. All that could be heard around them was their heavy breathing and the smack of their lips against one another’s.  
  
They had literally lost all track of where they were and what they should be doing. Until someone yanked the back of Sirius’s school shirt so forcefully he had to let go of Ali, who only just managed to steady herself on her feet. Sirius then began coughing from the pressure of his collar against his throat.  
  
‘As a prefect, I’m obligated to put a stop to students  _having sex_  in the bleeding corridors.’ As soon as she heard the voice of their captor, every morsel of blood from Ali’s body left her extremities and flooded her cheeks.  
  
‘Reg?’ Sirius turned around to identify his little brother, now that he had relinquished the hold he had on the back of his shirt.  
  
‘I wouldn’t usually care about your exhibitionist tendencies. But, you seem to have an  _audience_.’ Regulus pointed to the end of the corridor, where no less than fifteen students, all from different year levels and houses were staring at the exchange, mouths agape.   
  
Both Ali and Sirius looked over at the crowd they had gained from their fervent exchange. They were all just  _staring_  at them. It was as if anywhere Ali went, no matter what she did, she couldn’t escape everyone staring at her.   
  
Suddenly something took over in Ali’s mind, not unlike the time she had launched herself on top of Anna Cox. But this time, she burst out laughing. She slapped a hand up over her mouth in an attempt to stop the laughter, as she knew it really wasn’t the time or place. But she couldn’t help it. She couldn’t escape the  _stares_. Everyone was so obsessed with staring at her. They deserved the show they got.  
  
‘You broke her.’ Regulus spoke with little finesse while Ali collapsed into a fit of laughter.   
  
‘Push off, you voyeurs!’ Sirius shouted at the onlookers and they all scrambled around, taking off in different directions. Sirius couldn’t help the laughter breaking his resolve as he offered a hand down to where Ali was kneeling, hugging her legs and having her mini episode.  
  
‘Sorry, Reg.’ Sirius apologised once Ali was back on her feet.   
  
‘Whatever.’ Regulus shrugged, ‘just go to class. Keep the public fornication for the weekends.’  
  
‘Hey, uh.. how- how are you?’ Sirius asked while Ali tried to control her laughter.  
  
‘Fine.’ Regulus replied. The reply was far too fast to ease anyone that might have believed him to be otherwise. It forced Ali to sober up a lot faster as she watched the odd exchange between the brothers.  
  
‘Yeah?’ Sirius tried to smile at him, but he looked a little concerned, ‘uh-’ Sirius seemed to contemplate something, but he dismissed it just as quickly, ‘well, I guess I should- I should go to potions.’   
  
‘Yeah. I’ll get her to class.’ Ali watched on as Regulus spoke to Sirius. He seemed to be avoiding his eyes. He kept his focus on the ground and it reminded Ali of the time she, herself, couldn’t look Sirius in the eyes. Regulus seemed tense. Much tenser than when they exchanged words between themselves in their shared classes. Granted they didn’t exchange  _many_  words. But he was certainly much less ridged.  
  
‘I’ll see you later on.’ Sirius spoke to Ali but didn’t move to touch her. The brothers hovered awkwardly for a moment, before Regulus grabbed a hold of the back of Ali’s school jumper and shoved her in the direction of their class.   
  
‘Watch it, Black.’ Ali snapped as the two of them walked away from Sirius. Ali was much too focused on the way Regulus was behaving to even say goodbye to Sirius.   
  
‘What was all that about?’ Ali asked, having very little in the way of tact concerning tender subjects, such as estranged family members.   
  
‘Are you molesting my brother in corridors now to get yourself into trouble? Moved on from hexing classmates?’ Regulus ignored her question, supplying her instead with another of his taunts before looking over to her with a lopsided grin.   
  
Ali laughed a little, ‘believe me when I say this, Black. If that was you trying to “help me” again, back there. I  _did not_  need it.’ She replied before winking and entering their classroom before him.   
  
She missed the uncharacteristic smile that adorned Regulus’s face as he watched her walk inside. He wasn’t far behind her and took up the seat beside her again as they sat and listened to Professor Ogden go on and on with excerpts from their defence textbook.  
  
Ali laughed every time the old professor said the words “and now” between his sentences.


	61. The end of an era

Ali was sitting her Ancient Runes exam late on the Thursday afternoon of their second week of exams. She had just finished her translations of all the hieroglyphics. She had even gone into so much detail on one of the questions, pertaining to the detail of a particular Mayan rune, she had to request more parchment from Professor Babbling. But the moment she had finished the last question, fully intent on going over her answers, her mind blanked and she thought back to the happenings of the Monday night before last.  
  
She was staring straight ahead. She would blink from time to time, but the information was still overwhelming her now more than a week later.   
  
That Monday morning had been spent, by everyone, prepping to sit their first day of exams. Lily had been stressing more than usual. Peter kept voicing his revision at the breakfast table, as if saying all the herbology facts out loud might have better prepared him for their exam, which had been straight after breakfast. Sirius and James were goofing around together. James had been stating how pretty Sirius would have looked with his hair tied back.  
  
 _‘Truly. I think you’d give most of the girls at Hogwarts a run for their money. Maybe you should just ditch exams and become the new face of Witch Weekly?’_  James had said, while running his fingers through Sirius’s hair, standing up behind him at the breakfast table.  
  
 _‘Baby, you’re so supportive. I just- I feel like I could accomplish anything with you behind me. Figuratively and literally._ ’ Sirius had joked back.   
  
Ali hadn’t been all that interested in what they had been saying. She’d become so immune to their ridiculous level of friendship it was natural to hear the two boys crooning over each other like that. Lily was clearly on the same level. She hadn’t been paying them a lick of attention either, and instead had been going over her revision notes on multiple bits of parchment.  
  
 _‘This contradicts this part. What was I trying to say here? This doesn’t make any sense! What if Sprout asks me this!?_ ’ Ali had watched her stressing over her notes all weekend. NEWTs had stricken fear into the seventh years. Every one of them had completely freaked out, bar Sirius and James. Several of them had even been sent to the hospital wing for medicated rest.   
  
Whilst James and Sirius had been making jokes, Peter had continued to recite any information he could remember. Lily kept arguing with herself, while Mary and Marlene tried to sooth her, but it had been Remus that had held Ali’s real attention that morning.   
  
Ali had noticed more than a few times that Remus’s demeanour could change rather drastically. The instances never lasted overly long, and he would either wind up in the hospital wing with a cold, or a bug, or disappear on trips home to help his mother with things. It just seemed like Remus got overly grumpy when he was ill, or frustrated with his home life. Ali had ignored it in the past simply because that was just Remus. Remus got sick a lot. He obviously didn’t eat enough vegetables because his immune system was shot. But it was at breakfast that morning that she had really started paying attention to the mood he was well and truly wallowing in.  
  
 _‘Peter, would you_ shut it! _’_ He had snapped when Peter recited the same sentence of plant remedies for the fourth time aloud.   
  
 _‘Oh… sorry, Moony. I- I didn’t realise I was saying that out loud._ ’ That was the first reaction that got her suspicious. Since when did Peter apologise for speaking? Granted he was a little more skittish than the others. But he held his own with the boys and back-chatted them when they were being jerks.  _Strike one_.  
  
Later on that day Sirius had found Ali in the halls after the seventh years had finished both parts of their herbology NEWT, and Ali had been leaving her Transfiguration exam. Remus looked to have been dragged there by James.  
  
 _‘Come on, Moony. Precious, little moon-pie. My sweet tidal-child. Moon man!_ ’ James had said. It looked as if he had been annoying Remus with this talk all day. But Remus had always been very accommodating. No matter how much someone annoyed him, he was always polite about it. Even if he was just as cheeky as his friends in many other circumstances. So when he had bitten back-  
  
 _‘Honestly Prongs would you_ stop _with the Moon-puns? I hate the moon-puns!’_  That had rung alarm bells for Ali. Remus didn’t bite back. He was arguably a six foot tall golden retriever.  _Strike Two._  
  
Now, at that point Ali had spent a full two weeks taking refuge in the boys dorm. The boys had all been so blasé about it. The most they mentioned it had been a few wise cracks from James. He joked that having a female touch in the dorm was what he’d always needed. Someone around to help him pick out outfits. One night he’d asked her whether or not she approved of his pyjama sets. His mum had bought them for him and he wasn’t sure if they made his bum look big. Ali had promptly placed her entire hand over his face and pushed him off Sirius’s bed, where she had been going over Transfiguration techniques with Sirius.   
  
Spending two full weeks in the company of the boys had made Ali realise things about them that she had not realised before. James Potter was an absolute head-case. She already knew that. But he was also what seemed to be the mother of the group. He ran around behind the boys for all sorts of things. Reminding Peter to study for Defence more than Charms because he had trouble with one of the required spells the week before. Waking Remus up in the mornings no matter how many tries it took him. Reprimanding Sirius for staying up too late and being grumpy about it in the morning.   
  
Peter, she realised, was funnier than anyone would have known had they not witnessed him in the confines of the boys’ dorm. He would spit out dry wit without much thought and it made all of them laugh, Ali included. Peter was a lot quieter than James or Sirius, but Ali knew now why they accepted him so fully. He was an equal part of their group.  
  
Ali was more in tune with Sirius than she had ever been with anyone else in her life. She took pride in the fact that she  _knew_  him. But spending such an excess amount of time with him, she noted a few extra things. Sirius Black complained about  _everything._  He fought everyone on what they said. Even in a joking manner. He just liked to argue. Watching him interact with the boys made her realise why she used to butt heads with him so badly back before she really knew him. He was an absolute  _terror_. But everything he fought people on, was because he was standing up for the underdog of the situation. And any argument he would start, would always end in laughter and play fighting.   
  
Then there was Remus. Remus who had been Ali’s first friend. Remus who Ali really thought she had figured out. Remus was intelligent, not in the genius way James and Sirius seemed to be, but in the educated, he worked for this level of functioning type of intelligent. The intelligence that Ali admired and truly respected. She wanted to give James and Sirius and good kick up the bum a lot of the time. But despite his higher brain functioning, and well-mannered temperament, Remus was quite mischievous and dirty-minded. More than once had he said a few things in reply to conversations being thrown around the room that completely dumbfounded Ali.  
  
All this time she had believed it to be James and Sirius that instigated the bulk of the trouble they got into. But listening to them chat amongst themselves she was beginning to realise it was Remus that had a good hand in most of the pranking schemes. She had been deceived by this soft-spoken demeanour!   
  
Needless to say, she had become so close to these boys whilst sharing their living quarters that she really felt like she  _knew_  them. She was beginning to pick up on their jokes. She was actually joining in with the conversations. She felt so accepted. So on that Monday night, when she had travelled back from the dinner she had sat down to with just Lily, Mary and Marlene, she was confused when she couldn’t find the boys in the common room. She understood these boys. She knew their routine.   
  
 _‘Where are the boys_?’ She had asked Lily, looking around the common room for them.   
  
 _‘I’m off to study with- uh- a friend_.’ Mary had said beside them.  
  
 _‘Who do you keep running off to meet?’_ Marlene had asked. Ali had been much too focused on the fact that the loudest group of morons in their house were not, at that moment, annoying every common-room-occupant with incessant chatter.   
  
 _‘Maybe they’re upstairs?_ ’ Lily had suggested.  
  
 _‘If you two are disappearing up there again, I’m coming this time_.’ Marlene had intervened. They had then decided it would be a good idea to go up there and study, and they got their books and climbed the stairs up to the boys’ dorm.  
  
Usually when Ali had entered the boys’ dorm, the thing that greeted her ears was laughter. So when Lily opened their door that night, and the first thing affronting them was a loud, howl-like cry from within, Ali’s suspicion was once again raised.  
  
 _‘I can’t find the other pair to this sock! Why is everything so fucking difficult!_ ’ Remus had shouted and kicked his bed. His anger had distracted the boys from noticing the girls entering.  
  
 _‘What do you need a sock for anyway? You’ll just bust through it when you transform._ ’ Peter had laughed. But Remus had eyes on the girls as the words had been leaving Peter’s mouth. He had looked terrified.  _Strike Three._    
  
 _‘Transform?’_  Marlene had spoken the words at the same time as Ali.   
  
 _‘Shit_.’ Lily had said, along with Peter, James and Sirius.  
  
 _‘Wait, what?’_  James had said, pointing at Lily.  
  
 _‘Are you_ kidding me _?’_ Remus had clawed at his own face in what had seemed like severe annoyance.  
  
 _‘What’s going on_?’ Marlene had asked.  
  
 _‘Yeah,’_ Ali had added,  _‘there’s something weird going on between all of you. I’ve been picking up on it all day._ ’   
  
 _‘What does he mean, transform_?’ Marlene had asked again.  
  
 _‘I’m sorry can we swing back a bit here, you know?_ ’ James had asked coming over to stand before Lily.  
  
 _‘Snivellus told her._ ’ Remus had said, throwing his hands up in the air.  
  
 _‘That greasy git_!’ Sirius had spat, getting up from his bed.  
  
 _‘He didn’t tell me. I figured it out._ ’ Lily had shaken her head while James had beamed at her and wrapped his arms around her appreciatively.  
  
 _‘Moony. Moony look here, she’s fine with it. We’re all fine with it. I didn’t think I could love you more._ ’James had said to Lily, laying heavy kisses all over her face while she giggled.  
  
 _‘Can someone fucking tell me what is going on? What does he mean when you_ transform _?’_ Marlene had demanded, standing by Ali.  
  
 _‘Oh for gods sake_.’ Peter had shouted and ripped his jumper over his head. At first the action had seemed incredibly odd. But then, before their eyes, Peter had just morphed into a rat.  
  
Ali had dropped her books and her jaw in that moment.   
  
 _‘What the fuck_!’ Marlene had shouted. Sirius had just started laughing away in the background. Lily had clapped a hand over her mouth after she let out a small scream. Ali herself couldn’t help in that moment but smile.  
  
 _‘Peter’s an animagus?’_  She had asked excitedly.  
  
 _‘Not just Wormtail!_ ’ Sirius had announced, unbuttoning his shirt. In that moment Ali’s eyes had almost bludged out of her head wondering why Sirius was undressing before them. Marlene had fallen up against the door behind them when Sirius had promptly shifted, plain as day, into a large black dog.  
  
Then Marlene had started laughing. Because Ali had screamed. And Lily, too.   
  
 _‘Oh my god! Oh my god these are the pets you visited me with! Oh my god! James!’_  Lily had screamed beating him with the book she still had in her hand. James had just laughed as Sirius barked and leapt up onto his unmade bed. Peter’s tiny form had run over to Ali and had started squeaking at her feet.  
  
Ali, in that moment, just burst into laughter. Marlene hadn’t been far behind.  
  
 _‘This is it. This is my life. Chaos and idiots_.’ Remus had said, sighing heavily.   
  
 _‘They’re animagus! Do you know how amazing this is? Do you know the magic required to pull this off!?_ ’ Ali had laughed looking over at James where he had been trying to calm Lily down.  
  
 _‘I do! I’m a stag!’_  James had replied jovially and Lily lost her footing and collapsed into James’s arms.  
  
Ali had laughed so hard, until something had dawned on her,  _‘Wait… Potter. Potter you’re all registered, right?’_  But James had been too occupied getting Lily to his bed and fanning her face to take note of what Ali had asked. Marlene was frozen against the door.   
  
 _‘No. They’re not. They’re morons that all secretly became animagus to prove a point_.’ Remus had stated in exasperation and that’s when Sirius had changed back into a human on his bed to shout back at Remus.  
  
 _‘Oy, you twat. We did it to help with_ your  _moonstrations_.’ After that statement, the laughter around the room died off.  
  
 _‘Wait._ ’ Marlene had said still against the door, ‘ _Padfoot. Wormtail. Prongs. And-’_  she had pointed to each of the respective boys as she spoken their nicknames and put two and two together. Her finger had landed on Remus, where he had stood staring blankly back at her.  
  
Marlene had just slapped a hand up over her mouth and refrained from speaking his nickname. Ali had to think on it for a while longer before it hit her. And when it had… she had fully understood the atmosphere in the room.   
  
 _‘Just fucking spectacular_.’ Remus had sworn and made to leave the room. When he had come face to face with Marlene, who still held a hand over her mouth from shock standing before the dorm exit, the entire room had held its breath.   
  
They had all watched on as Remus and Marlene stared each other down for what seemed like forever. Ali could still feel the twinge of shared agony the moment Marlene had lowered her hand, dropped her eyes to the floor and stepped aside for him.   
  
Once Remus had left the room, everyone had been quite silent. Ali almost stepped on Peter, who had still been in rat form, but she’d bent down and scooped him up. No one spoke until Marlene had darted from the room in tears. Lily had jumped off James’s bed and made to follow her.  
  
 _‘That could have gone better_.’ James had spoken snapping Ali back to reality.  
  
 _‘Just to clarify, I have picked up on the dragon in the room here, right? Remus Lupin has… lycanthropy?_ ’ Ali had asked, still in a solid amount of shock. Although since it had been laid out before her, it really made  _a lot_  of sense.  
  
Sirius had laughed in the background,  _‘well done.’_  That was when Ali secured Peter in one hand, only to use the other to point a menacing finger in his direction.  
  
 _‘I am not done with you_.’ Her short words had caused Sirius to be instantly silenced. He had just sat stock still on his bed, covering his lower half with his blankets. That night she had turned to James and asked him all about it. She had to know more. James was really very hesitant towards the subject and mostly just told her it was Remus’s business and that she should gather details from him.   
  
She had handed the tiny form of Peter over to James and then advanced on Sirius, who had located pants by that point. She yelled at him for twenty-five solid minutes about the severity of the punishment he would receive if anyone reported him to the ministry as an unregistered animagus.  _‘Azkaban! You idiots! You could all go to Azkaban!’_ She had said, smacking Sirius’s chest with the back of her hand.  
  
Once she got over how furious with them she was, she softened and had to ask  _‘okay- and I am not saying I condone any of this- but- but how long did it take you? When did you do it? Was it hard? Merlin you’re animagus!_ ’ Needless to say, she was very disturbed about how deeply impressed she had been.   
  
The boys happily explained their forms to her along with the logistics of it all. But they had all disappeared a little over an hour after the entire ordeal to join Remus. To help him. They had explained that they transformed themselves into animals to help their friend in need. That was the main part of the insane situation that grounded Ali.  
  
Remus Lupin was a werewolf. And in their world, that was not something to be laughed at. Ali found the concept easier to grasp than most brought up in the wizarding world would. She had visited him the night after in the hospital wing to talk to him about it. They had just spoken casually, like they used to. Ali had never been good at holding back her inner thoughts and she had asked him all about it. He had actually been quiet forthcoming with his answers. But then he had said to her,  _‘you’re not- well- you’re not holding prejudice against me?_ ’ he had asked seeming so astounded.  
  
Ali had snorted at him  _‘Remus my brown mother married my white father. I’ve seen prejudice all my life. My mother, she used to scream at people for holding prejudice against people that didn’t deserve it. I know what’s ridiculous and what’s not. But, it might take others a little more understanding to come around._ ’ She had been referring to Marlene. Of course, Marlene was in the same boat as Ali. They had both been brought up in the magical world. Prejudice against lycanthropy suffers was just second nature. Most people didn’t outright hate them, so much as they feared them.   
  
Marlene hadn’t spoken to Remus since that night. So many things had started to make sense, now that Ali knew. So as she had finished up her Ancient Runes exam, which was her last exam for the year, the gravity of the last week’s happenings really settled with her. It was a lot to take in. She would be lying if she said Remus hadn’t changed in her eyes. He had. But not for the worse. She just felt like she understood him better now.  
  
‘Quill’s down, please!’ Professor Babbling asked. Ali then realised she’d been daydreaming and didn’t get to read over her test at all.   
  
‘Oh, nonononono!’ Ali grabbed a hold of her parchment and scanned the top of it at lightning speed but Professor Babbling flicked her wand and summoned the papers to her and then, just like that, it was gone. Ali whined in defeat letting her head fall to the desk.   
  
The small amount of students still taking sixth-year Ancient Runes all filed out of the classroom, Ali was left to walk alone towards the common room. She felt lost again. The end of year exams had consumed her and forced her to stop thinking of her mother. They had put her in a better frame of mind. She needed a new distraction now.   
  
When she entered the common room, she found her group of friends all set up near the fire-place, which wasn’t lit this close to summer.   
  
‘Adams! Come sit with us!  _Join us_!’ James sung as he noticed her approaching.  
  
‘What do you think I’m  _doing_  you imbecile?’ Ali shook her head at him, crossing the distance towards where Sirius was sitting with Peter on the floor by the low coffee-table.   
  
‘Her pet names for me are so cute.’ He joked, lounging back on the armchair. Lily was sitting at the foot of his chair with notes splayed out all around her. Sirius seemed to be helping Peter with their last NEWT preparation. Remus was taking up the entirety of the couch, looking solemn as he read over his notes.  
  
‘Budge up.’ Ali demanded, taking a seat on the couch with Remus, behind Sirius and Peter.  
  
‘Hey, babe.’ Sirius acknowledged her, turning around and pushing himself up to give her a chaste kiss before returning to instructing Peter.  
  
‘What do you guys have tomorrow?’ Ali asked, looking sideways at Remus who had been extremely quiet since last Monday’s events.  
  
‘A history of  _magic_. So thrilling.’ James replied in what was supposed to be sarcasm, but almost came out sounding as if he meant his words.   
  
Nothing could put a damper on James Potter’s mood this week. Over the weekend, Gryffindor had played the last match of the season against Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw had actually managed to beat them by just ten points, but that wasn’t what had James so happy. There was usually scouts at the season’s final matches that sat in the stands, with permission from the professors, to oversee any potential talent.  
  
James’s players might not have won the match, but James had played his hardest (as had they all) and after the match, a scout for no less than three teams around England had offered James to attend trials for their teams. One such team had been James’s  _team_. The Tutshil Tornadoes. James was  _ecstatic_. He’d written home to his mother and she was overjoyed, also. Not to mention since then Lily seemed to not be able to keep her hands off him. Even now as she read over her notes, she had one hand absentmindedly running circles over the arm he had draped over her shoulder.   
  
‘Oy, Potter. What’s the big deal with the tornadoes anyway?’ Ali asked knowing exactly what the answer was going to be. She had found a new favourite past-time.  
  
‘Adams! Don’t you even get me  _started_.’ James launched up and Sirius started snickering.  
  
‘Ali.’ Remus warned, but when Ali turned to look at him, he was smirking down at his parchment.  
  
‘I heard they suck.’ Ali baited and couldn’t keep herself from laughing when James jumped into an upright sitting position on the armchair.  
  
‘Do you hear this, Lily? She’s uneducated in the way of quidditch!’  
  
‘Was it eighteen-eighty-two or eighteen-eighty-three that the giants invaded Romania? I can never remember…’ Lily asked the group, seeming to not have heard James at all.  
  
‘Lily.’ James pouted behind her.  
  
‘Huh? Oh-’ Lily smiled looking up at where James was hovering over her. ‘Hey there mister professional-quidditch-player.’ The two seemed to zone out of reality after that. They just stared at each other, smiling. James then leant down over Lily and kissed her and that’s when Ali groaned and lost interest.   
  
‘Look how nice it is outside. We should go out and lay on the lawns. I miss the sun!’ Ali complained, looking out the window to the shining sunny day outside.  
  
‘I’ll come down with you.’ Remus smiled beside her.  
  
‘Yeah, a little break would be good. These dates don’t seem to be sticking anymore. We’ve been at it too long.’ Peter sighed, falling back on his hands, away from their work.  
  
‘That’s because you’re incapable of memory retention, Merlin's  _beard_!’ Sirius tossed the notes they had been going over in the air and smacked his head down on the table in resignation. Ali laughed behind him and he jumped up instantly, moving around to look at her.  
  
‘Was that funny?’ He asked. It was a rhetorical question, clearly. But Ali nodded anyway, still chuckling at him. ‘You just  _love_  watching me hurt myself.’ Sirius shook his head at his girlfriend as Ali continued to laugh while nodding her head in agreement.   
  
Sirius acted as though he was going to retaliate as he propped himself up and climbed onto the lounge with her, but it ended with him merely giving her a bear-hug while Peter and Remus got to their feet.  
  
‘Come on then, stop snogging and get up.’ Remus said in reference to both couples. Sirius and Ali hadn’t been locking lips, but James and Lily weren’t holding back. Sirius helped Ali up and the four of them waited for Lily and James to be done.  
  
‘Oh come  _on_ , Prongs!’ Sirius exclaimed, nudging their chair, ‘you can’t hog Evans. She belongs to all of us.’ He finished as the two broke their contact. Sirius took that as a chance to pull Lily up and link arms with her.  
  
‘Evans is going to play with my hair down by the lake.’ Sirius said dragging Lily off towards the common room exit.   
  
‘I am? Wait, my notes!’ Lily looked behind them.  
  
‘Don’t stress, Evans. It’s all in here.’ Sirius assured her, tapping a finger to his temple, ‘I’ll quiz you.’  
  
‘Oh, well I’ll braid flowers into your hair if that’s the case.’ Lily agreed happily.  
  
‘Oy! Two can play at that game!’ James shouted, jumping up from his chair and advancing on Ali.   
  
‘Nope!’ Ali dodged him in the nick of time and settled herself between Remus and Peter. They all laughed and carried on all the way down to the first floor landing, Sirius and Lily leading the way. It was when they were descending the stairs to the entrance hall, while she was pushing James away from her yet again, that she noticed someone of importance walking up the stairs towards them.  
  
‘Headmaster!’ Ali shouted with so much conviction, Dumbledore actually jumped a little from fright.  
  
‘Aaliyah, my dear!’ Dumbledore greeted her, placing a hand up over his chest. He smiled up at her as Ali pushed by Lily and Sirius to get to him.  
  
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you, sir. Just- just I’ve been trying to get a hold of you.’ Ali started.  
  
‘The lovely Professor McGonagall has just informed me of this, actually. I have been by to see your father and brother a few times, but I seem to have missed you by hours the night you returned to school. I am sorry about that.’   
  
‘Sir!’ Ali wasn’t fussed about excuses of time or reasoning for his absence, she just wanted to know, ‘sir, we want to join!’ She felt Sirius come to stand behind her on the stairs. Luckily there weren’t many other students around, as they would have been already enjoying the sunshine or holed up studying furiously.   
  
‘Join?’  
  
‘Your society, sir! The or-’  
  
‘Aaliyah.’ Dumbledore silenced her, ‘I am grateful for your gusto, but please remember the importance of a  _secret_  society.’ He peered over his spectacles at her with a smirk.  
  
Ali slapped a hand up over her mouth and looked around the hall. There were only two students not of their party, and they were far enough away that they wouldn’t have heard.  
  
‘Can we join, please?’ Ali continued, not allowing the slight hiccup to stop her.  
  
‘Aaliyah.’ Dumbledore looked at her through his glasses again. He seemed worn out, but still surrounded by his usual bright clandestineness.  
  
‘Sir. I don’t want her to have died for nothing.’  
  
‘She saved no less than four children stopping that death-eater, Aaliyah. Her death was far from in vain.’ He countered.  
  
‘I want to fight! We all do.’ Ali reiterated, looking back at the others. They had all come down to hover close by. Sirius was right behind her, sharing in her determination.   
  
‘You all want to join this cause that you know nothing about, because Miss Adams would never have told you its inner workings when I informed her of its existence in confidence?’ Dumbledore mused with a smirk, looking around at the other five students.   
  
‘We want to fight.’ Sirius stepped in.  
  
‘If you’ll let us, we want to help any way we can.’ James now.  
  
‘Please, sir.’ Lily pleaded.  
  
‘Not that we know about any of it, of course.’ Remus added. There was a silence in which Dumbledore settled his eyes on one of them in particular.  
  
‘You  _all_  want to join?’ Dumbledore asked once more and Ali realized he was staring at Peter, towards the back. They waited and Peter looked around at them all before nodding his head.  
  
Dumbledore paused, ‘well. You’re all graduating, and I can’t stop you. As long as you keep your mind on school next year, Aaliyah, I’ll allow it.’ Dumbledore smiled and that’s when Ali launched forwards, uncharacteristically and threw her arms around their headmaster.  
  
‘Oh!’ Dumbledore chuckled, giving her back a pat, ‘I’m glad you’re getting back on your feet.’ He smiled down at her once she drew back and froze up a little realising what she had just done. ‘I’ll inform you all of a date over the holidays to meet at the Adams residence and I’ll brief you on what we’re doing.’   
  
There was an uneven call of ‘thank you headmaster’ that came from most of them.   
  
‘Do enjoy the sunshine, but be wary around the lake edge. I hear the squid is in a playful mood.’ Dumbledore spoke, bidding them all a good day before continuing off up the stairs towards his office. Sirius grabbed Ali around the neck and pulled her down the stairs and out into the sunshine outside.   
  
‘You did it!’ Sirius cried in admiration leading her off towards the lake, ‘you actually did it!’  
  
The rest of the group all gave her the same approval about confronting their headmaster. Ali was just happy that she was finally certain she could be helping out some way in this war. They all found a green, grassy patch near where a lot of other students were basking in the early summer beams.   
  
They spent the rest of the afternoon going over the History of Magic dates, names, and events. Sirius finally left Ali’s side when Lily decided to play with his hair. James and Remus discussed what their duties as a war hero might be. The giant squid was putting on a show at the lake’s middle, flailing around a tentacle from time to time. Ali just listened to the conversations around her for the most part, until she noticed Peter fidgeting.  
  
‘You do want to be part of this organization?’ Ali asked him, while everyone else was occupied. She had realised a while ago that Sirius had informed all the boys about the Order and gave in and explained the finer details further with Lily in their presence, also. The entire group was on board for joining. Or at least, that’s what she’d thought.  
  
‘Oh?’ Peter seemed startled that anyone had noticed his withdrawal, ‘I mean, yeah. It’s just… it’s scary. Thinking about it. We’ll be fighting  _you-know-who_.’ Peter whispered, looking around like the dark wizard might pop out of the lake riding the giant squid.  
  
‘Yeah. Exactly.’ Ali smiled at him, ‘We’ll be saving people and doing good. And we’ll help bring him down, Peter. And we’ll do it together.’  
  
Peter smiled back at her and nodded. But he still seemed a little unsure. It was fair. It was a big thing, to willingly go against one of the darkest wizards of all time.   
  
‘I’ll be here with you.’ Ali added, knowing that when Sirius had said a similar thing to her, it had calmed her torment. That’s when Peter gave her a genuine smile in return. They waited until the sun had well and truly set before they ventured back up to the castle to get dinner together.   
  
The day that followed, the seventh years all took their last NEWT and a calm descended over the castle. There was excited chatter all through the halls about the end of term feast and by the time night rolled around, they celebrated happily when Ravenclaw was awarded the House Cup. Winning the Quidditch Cup put them just enough ahead of Gryffindor, and no one was sour about it.   
  
On the Saturday morning they were all running around, grabbing up the last of their things getting ready to board the train back to London.   
  
Ali scooped Snowball up in her dorm after packing away the last of her effects and leaving her trunk at the end of her bed. She had already secured her mother’s letter in the pocket of her school robes. It had become her prized possession. She looked around at her dorm mates, all who hadn’t dared say a word to her since her attack on Anna.  
  
‘Uh, I’ll- I’ll see you all next year, then?’ She spoke, having calmed down significantly since her first return to school.   
  
‘Yeah.’ Bianca smiled at her. Anna and Maria both nodded their heads in polite agreement and Emily clapped her hands.  
  
‘Next year should be exciting!’ She crooned and Anna rolled her eyes.  
  
‘Everything is exciting to you,’ she said, but smiled at her tall friend afterwards.  
  
‘Have a nice summer.’ Ali nodded to them, hitching Snowball up in her arms and slotting her wand into her pocket with her mother’s letter.   
  
She left the dorm and found Sirius and the others downstairs. They all travelled out of the castle together and the boys all stopped a little way down the lawn to look up at it.  
  
‘I’ll miss this place.’ Sirius beamed up at the castle. The boys all agreed as they made their way onwards and up to where their carriages were waiting. The ride to Hogsmeade station was spent the same way as the train ride home. With a lot of laughter. Ali only got up once to do rounds of the train.   
  
‘What do we do about the map?’ Remus asked as Ali slid back into the private compartment the boys had at the back of the train. Marlene was still hesitant with Remus and so Lily had decided to spend the trip with her two friends instead.   
  
‘What map?’ Ali asked, slipping into the seat by Sirius. The whole compartment went quiet as all eyes fell on her.  
  
‘Should we?’ James deliberated.  
  
‘Couldn’t hurt.’ Peter mused.  
  
‘She’ll have use for it.’ Remus agreed.  
  
‘She’ll  _kill_  me.’ Sirius argued.  
  
Ali pulled her wand out and had it at Sirius’s throat within a heartbeat, ‘inform me this  _instant_  of your screw up Sirius Black, or so help me I will maim you.’  
  
Sirius got a strange look on his face from Ali’s words. He furrowed his brows and pulled in his bottom lip almost in yearning before he agreed to tell her their last secret.  
  
‘We made a map.’ James started.  
  
‘A map.’ Ali nodded along.  
  
‘Of the school, actually.’ Remus continued, smiling.  
  
‘Wait…  _you made a map of Hogwarts_?’ Ali cried.  
  
‘Not just Hogwarts!’ Peter added, ‘it tells you where  _everyone_  in the castle is, at all times.’  
  
‘It was actually you that gave me the idea.’ Sirius spoke finally, to her left. Ali swung around to him, her jaw dropped. She was so shocked she didn’t know how to respond until suddenly she pulled Sirius in and kissed him.  
  
‘You boys are actually  _incredible_! When you’re not being complete  _shitheads_.’ Ali looked around at them and the compartment burst into laughter. They pulled the map out and instructed her on how to work it. Usually Ali might have complained about some kind of danger. With all the secret exits and entrances she had just now become aware of, she could have argued it might have been a liability. But Ali had changed since her fifth year, when only rules had mattered. She decided the map would be great for catching students out of bed next year, at least. So the boys decided to surrender their precious map to Ali, on the conditions that she would pass it down for more misdeeds once she graduated.  
  
‘I’m not handing it over to some ratbag students who will give another poor, rule-abiding prefect grey hairs, like you all did to me.’ Ali refused point-blank.  
  
‘Well then at least give it back to us when you’ve graduated. We’ll do the rest.’ Sirius decided.  
  
‘No.’ Ali defied him, ‘I said I wouldn’t give it to some  _ratbag_  student. I never said I wouldn’t pass it along.’ Ali smirked, slotting the map into her robes and away from Sirius’s reach. The rest of the train ride was spent laughing. They changed back into their normal clothing, and it was getting late by the time they arrived in London.   
  
‘You’ll have to come and check out my place.’ Sirius said to Ali, as everyone began to part ways on the platform.  
  
‘You’ll have to come and spend time with my family.’ Ali tapped him on the nose.  
  
‘Both sound good.’ Sirius nodded, ‘my place sounds like a  _lot_ of fun though.’ He winked at her.  
  
‘Does it?’ A voice interrupted them from behind and both Ali and Sirius jumped a foot away from each other, wheeling around to Christian and Tucker.  
  
‘Dad!’  
  
‘Ali.’  
  
‘Ali!’ Tucker cried grabbing at her.  
  
‘There’s my man!’ Ali exclaimed, falling to her knees to engulf Tucker.  
  
‘Hello, Mr Adams.’ Sirius smiled at him nervously. Christian stared back at him blankly while Ali lifted Tucker up into her arms.  
  
‘I expect you to be at dinner sometime this week, Sirius. So we can get to know each other.’ Christian pointed a finger right at Sirius’s face. Sirius just nodded enthusiastically and Ali laughed at them.  
  
‘I’ll write to you as soon as we get home.’ Ali leant forth and kissed Sirius on the cheek.  
  
‘Sirius! Sirius you’re coming for dinner, please!’ A woman shouted off in the distance. It was James’s mother, waving him over where she stood with James and Lily and Lily’s parents.  
  
‘Be right with you Mrs P!’ Sirius waved back.  
  
‘Oh! Is that Ali?! Tell her she has to come and visit! Tell her Sirius!’ She called over again through the throngs of parents and students.  
  
‘You have to come and visit Mrs Potter.’ Sirius turned back to the Adams, ‘oh! If that’s alright with you, sir.’ Sirius asked, looking at Christian.  
  
‘You better get over to her, before she loses a limb trying to wave you down.’ Christian nodded at Mrs Potter who was still trying to get Sirius’s attention.   
  
‘Yes, sir.’ Sirius replied and Christian laughed.  
  
‘Bye pretty-boy!’ Tucker wiggled his tiny fingers at Sirius in an almost seductive type of farewell, still secured in Ali’s arms. Sirius laughed at him and gave him a kiss on the cheek to which Tucker grinned happily over. Once Sirius had said his goodbyes and was over tending to Mrs Potter, Ali hugged Tucker in tighter to her.   
  
‘I missed you!’ She told him as Christian got her trunk and Ali picked up Snowball, now in his cage.  
  
‘Li-li, don’t ever leave again. Dad is  _terrible_  at dressing me.’ Tucker looked at her with a distraught look and Ali just laughed. As they left the station, Ali noticed Regulus with a severe yet stunning woman. She looked like a woman straight out of the forties with grace and beauty and yet her face was stern and menacing. It had to be his mother. Sirius’s mother.  
  
Ali watched them. Regulus wasn’t speaking, but his mother was. They were trailed by a house elf who was collecting up Regulus’s things. Regulus noticed Ali and without speaking, they politely acknowledged one another with the hint of a smile. Then Regulus went to help their house-elf but seemed to be scolded by his mother for that. They left the platform and all the way home Ali thought of the very many things she wanted to say to Mrs Black. Most of them being said with her wand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually know the exact dates of every one of these chapters because I looked up a full moon calendar to make sure Remus's transitions were always at the right time. The poor thing had one on the Monday of their first week of exams! That's the worst.


	62. Two jealous redheads

James stirred slightly in his sleep. He made to roll over in his bed, but realised his arm was tightly wrapped around someone’s waist. It didn’t take him long to remember who it was. Without opening his eyes, he could hear that Lily’s breathing was light and even, meaning she was awake. Because although Lily wasn’t aware of it, she had a tiny snore when she was deep in slumber. It wasn’t anything that could be heard unless you were sleeping beside her. It was cute, if anything. And James knew it well now.   
  
‘Morning.’ He croaked out, a smile seamlessly growing on his lips.   
  
‘Hello, handsome.’ Lily whispered back. James felt her lips touch down on his cheekbone, and then move to the curve of his nose, just under his eye.  
  
His smile only grew as Lily continued to lay kisses over parts of his face. As he opened his eyes, he squinted to make out more than the blurry colours of the general idea of his girlfriend. His eyesight really was terrible. He hoped he wouldn’t pass this unfortunate gene on to any children he might have.   
  
‘How long have you been awake?’ James asked, hugging Lily in tight and reaching over her to the nightstand to retrieve his glasses.  
  
‘Not long. I could hear your mother singing in the hallway. It was a nice way to wake up.’ She finished, as James secured his glasses behind his ears and looked down at where she lay. Her hair was sprawled out all over the pillow and she was staring up at the roof overhead.   
  
'Yeah, she does that.’ James nodded, lowering his face to place his lips over Lily’s. Hers were so soft and cushy it was a wonder James could ever stop himself from continuously going back for more when they were in the company of their friends.  
  
‘What would you like to do today?’ James asked, as he continued his chaste kisses. They didn’t really allow Lily any form of reply, ‘we can do anything you like?’ He continued, but kissed her again straight after, just as she made an attempt at answering him.   
  
‘James,’ Lily started, but was silenced once again by James’s hunger for her mouth, ‘James,’ she tried again, only to fail the exact same way. James was smiling now. He knew exactly what he was doing and as he descended for another kiss, Lily smiled against his lips. She started to laugh but that didn’t stop him.   
  
He pressed his lips against hers again and spoke out the side of his mouth, ‘are you going to answer me, Lily? It’s very rude to keep your lover in such suspense.’   
  
‘Lover!?’ Lily yelped and pushed him back, ‘oh you want to be my  _lover_.’ A devilish stare fixed onto her face as she kept her forearm against his chest, allowing herself to get a word in, ‘I’ll make you a lover.’  
  
Lily suddenly flipped their positions so that James was now under her control. James eyes snapped open wide from behind his askew glasses as Lily reached a hand up and pulled the back of her fingers down the length of his face. James felt himself swallow as a warm sensation penetrated his abdomen when Lily slowly lowered herself down to kiss him, her tongue delving into his mouth quickly before she pulled back up. When James opened his eyes again Lily had a glint over her features that meant trouble.   
  
‘Your Mum’s out in the garden. I heard her yelling at the gnomes.’ She said, smiling as the hand that had stroked his face made its way down to his chest and started running small circles there.  
  
‘Is she?’ James grinned knowing exactly what Lily was getting at.  
  
‘She could be out there for  _hours_ , James. She told me yesterday she wanted to get back on top of the hedges around the  _entire_  estate.’ She spoke softly, keeping her eyes focused on James lips above any other part of his face. As she spoke, her hand deserted its circle making and travelled down to the waistband of his pants. Now that summer was upon them, any notion towards pyjama bottoms was lost. Lily herself was only clad in a short, sleeveless nightgown.   
  
‘We should probably go and help her then.’ James teased, his line of vision fixated on the redhead above him.  
  
At first Lily nodded in reply, but it transitioned fluidly to a cheeky frown and a slow shake of the head. That’s when her hand disappeared under the waistband of his pants and James eyes snapped open and any taunting was long but forgotten. Pranks? What were pranks? Who were the Marauders? What was magic?  
  
Lily snickered seeing the effect she had on him. She returned to kissing him, among other things under the covers. It wasn’t long before the only thing that could be heard in the room was their loud, open-mouthed breathing. Lily’s cotton nightgown was quite liberally tossed aside and James’s pants were awkwardly removed from one leg, but still tangled around the other, at his ankle.   
  
It was around the time that Lily had climbed on top of him and James was close to crying out Lily’s name that there was a knock on the door. The only time they had before it opened was enough time for Lily to bounce off James’s hips and grab the sheet up that was covering them to hide her naked body.  
  
‘Morning ki- OH MERLIN WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING!?’ Sirius screamed out in horror as he laid eyes on the sight before him.  
  
‘Oh my  _god_! SIRIUS! GET OUT!’ Lily hollered chucking a pillow at him.  
  
James was  _instantly_  disappointed with the loss of contact and quickly tried to hide his shame, but burst into laughter soon after at the fuss Sirius was making.  
  
‘You randy  _rabbits_! Mrs P is like  _just down stairs!_  What if she walked in on this! You two make me _sick_!’ Sirius held a hand over his eyes but made no attempt to leave the bedroom.  
  
‘What do you want, Padfoot? We were kind of in the middle of something.’ James laughed, as his problem under the sheet faded away with every step Sirius took closer towards them. This tosser of a best friend of his had mastered the art of bad timing.  
  
‘Are you  _decent_?’ Sirius asked, pulling his hand away from his face but leaving his eyes shut. Lily looked over at her discarded nightgown, but it was hanging off the door to James’s wardrobe where it had been thrown. It was too far away to retrieve without Sirius seeing every uncovered inch of her. She sighed and just made sure the sheet was covering her as much as possible.  
  
‘Why are you here, Padfoot? Shouldn’t you be at Adams’ house?’ James watched Sirius as he opened his eyes and realised the danger of seeing Lily naked was gone.  
  
‘What? I can’t come and check in on my two  _favourite_ people? Make sure that haven’t slipped into some kind of  _sexual coma_?’ Sirius completely ignored their personal boundaries and took a seat to the side of the bed with James while Lily rolled her eyes at him.  
  
‘What day is it?’ Lily questioned aloud, thinking, ‘ _ahh_ ,’ She smiled at Sirius figuring it out.   
  
‘It’s a Sunday.’ Lily said looking at James and the reality clicked for James, also.  
  
‘Still avoiding Papa-Adams then are we?’ James asked Sirius directly.  
  
Sirius gasped, ‘How dare you accuse my  _honour_? I would never deliberately avoid my lady’s house. If I could be there today  _I would_. I just, I found that my presence was needed much greater here. I mean, look. I’m stopping teen pregnancy.’   
  
‘Go and get to know her bloody father, Padfoot.’ James rolled his eyes reaching under the covers to link his pants around his other ankle before pulling them back up. It didn’t seem like they’d be finishing what they started anytime in the immediate future.   
  
‘He’s  _terrifying_.’ Sirius complained getting comfortable on the bed as James got up and retrieved Lily’s clothes for her.   
  
‘You’re such a baby.’ Lily bantered giving Sirius a push to get him to turn around as she grabbed her gown from James. She easily slipped back into it while Sirius continued to complain about his circumstances.  
  
‘That’s easy for you to say. Aren’t your parents away?  _Again_? Is Prongs ever going to meet them for more than thirty second intervals? He wasn’t exactly loquacious last week on the platform.’ Sirius finished with a laugh at James expense as Lily used him as leverage to steady herself and stood on the bed. James watched her in the mirror of his open wardrobe as she got off and down to the other side, joining him over at his wardrobe where he was finding clean clothes for the day.  
  
‘My parents are missionaries, Sirius. It’s their  _job_  to be away a lot. And they’re back for two weeks from tomorrow and James is  _happy_  to meet them. So don’t blame him because you corrupted Adams from a straight O student, to someone that is happy to be caught snogging in the corridors.’  
  
‘You heard about that?’ Sirius mused quietly in the background with a brazen grin at no one in particular.  
  
‘Everyone heard about that.’ James let a few breathy laughs loose watching Sirius grin over his small victory in the background, ‘Sirius Black, corrupting minors.’  
  
‘ _She’s not a minor_!’ Sirius lost his suave air, sitting up. James just ignored him looking around for where Lily had gone. She was peering out the window down to the yard below.   
  
Lily sighed, ‘your mother is  _still_  outside,’ she finished looking over at Sirius, ‘why do I get the feeling like you’re going to become a nuisance?’  
  
‘A nuisance? How dare you. Don’t forget that James and I were dating long before you snapped him up.’ Sirius argued as James joined Lily over at the window. He wrapped an arm around her waist from behind and leant down slightly to pull her thick hair aside and lay a kiss on the back of her neck.   
  
‘He is right. Sirius and I have been in a committed relationship for years. He’s basically the reason I’m such a great boyfriend to you.’ James conferred. Sirius nodded away in the background, still comfortable on James’ bed.  
  
‘Or,’ Lily turned around, captured between James and the closed glass window behind her. She leant in to whisper to him, ‘you could send your dog home and we could finish what we started in the shower?’  
  
‘Uh, Padfoot?’ James flicked around instantly, ‘you’re going to have to head off, mate. Limited hot water and we have to share a shower.’ James indicated between himself and Lily, hearing Lily giggle.  
  
Sirius barked out a laugh, ‘duly noted. Make sure you use protection, kids. And Evans  _you_  cast the spell! Prongs has never been great with the household-enchantments and I’m not quite ready to be a father!’ He finished and with a pop, his laughter vanished along with him.  
  
‘Like we’re that stupid.’ Lily laughed, but it wasn’t long before James had swept her up and they were headed off to the bathroom, faster than they had ever headed there for hygiene purposes. 

*

A couple of nights later, when Lily’s parents had returned from a small trip they had taken to attend a wedding in Paris, Lily had requested James join them out for dinner. James had eagerly agreed. He had meet the Evans briefly a couple of times, but nothing substantial and he wanted the chance to win them over to the best of his ability.  
  
‘Dad’s easy enough, I just don’t know what to do about Petunia. She’s so sour about us. She liked that she had Vernon and I was alone, I think.’ Lily rambled on. She had been home all day and had come back to tell James to join them now.   
  
‘Don’t worry,’ James smiled at her and brought her closer to kiss her forehead, ‘your sister doesn’t matter. She can be as sour as she wants.’  
  
‘I can’t not worry, James. What if she’s rude? She’s known to be rude. I hope that moustache of hers isn’t over. He’s a moustache with legs. Ugh.’  
  
‘Lily.’  
  
‘Okay, when you’re talking to Dad, remember that he likes football. Oh wait, you’ve never seen football. Well, talk about how you were head boy. Dad loves to hear about that stuff. He thinks we’re celebrities or something.’  
  
‘Lily.’  
  
‘Mum’s harder. Dad’s a really easy going guy. But Mum’s always so concerned with the way the world is going. She’s way more involved in the missionary stuff. She  _loves_  kids. But she’s a bit hard on with anyone over fifteen. She thinks we ought to be doing more for the environment, or helping people. Well we’re joining the  _Order, Mum_. We  _are_ helping people _._ ’  
  
‘LILY.’ James raised his voice grabbing Lily just above her elbows and shaking her out of her rant. She just stared back at him, shocked, ‘it’s fine. Calm down. Your sister and her moustache will be easy pickings. I’ll mention football to your Dad. Your Mum will love me. Just, breathe.’  
  
Lily laughed, ‘yeah. Sure. Mum will love you. Good luck!’ And with that she reached up and secured her hands around James arms and disapperated them.   
  
They reappeared in the entrance of the Evans home and gave Petunia a massive shock. She screamed out from where she was peering out the window by the front door. Lily started laughing as Petunia gathered herself back up and scowled at them. James found it funny, but thought it best not to get on anyone’s bad side just yet, so didn’t join Lily in her laughter.  
  
‘You freaks! Can’t you use the door like  _normal people_?’ Petunia spat edging around them towards the door to the kitchen.  
  
‘We can’t apparate out in the street, Tuney. The muggles would see us.’ Lily explained. But her sister just gave them a calculating stare, refusing to turn her back on them. She made it all the way to the door of where James knew the kitchen belonged.   
  
‘Petunia? Is that your sister? Make sure you’re there to greet them!’ A voice headed towards them and then Mrs Evans appeared in the doorway, bumping into Petunia, ‘oh honestly Petunia, what  _are_  you doing?’   
  
‘They zapped in here. Like one of those ridiculous star track episodes.’ Petunia spoke down her nose at them, beside her mother.   
  
‘ _Trek_.’ Lily sighed and James looked sideways at her, confused. ‘I’ll explain later.’ She assured him, but James wasn’t overly fussed. He made a move straight forward, scaring Petunia off into the kitchen and immediately took Mrs Evans hand up and kissed her knuckles.  
  
‘You look stunning today, Mrs Evans. If Lily looks half as good as you at your age, I’m going to be one lucky wizard.’ He gave her a quick wink and a flush rose to Mrs Evans cheeks and she started to giggle.  
  
‘Oh my, you’re a charmer aren’t you?’ She pushed a few of her blonde flyaways back out into her ponytail and out of her face with her free hand, then touched the back of her neck, ‘please, call me Sarah.’  
  
‘Oh you’re cheeky, Sarah.’ James played, nudging her and Mrs Evans laughed again, touching her face.  
  
‘Come and join us in the kitchen before we head off.’ She gave him a fleeting smile before turning around and disappearing off to where Petunia had.   
  
James turned around to see where Lily was and she was standing frozen in the entrance, where they had apparated and her mouth was slightly agape and her eyebrows furrowed.  
  
‘What?’ James asked incredulously.   
  
‘What was  _that_? “You’re  _cheeky_?” Who are you?’ Lily replied, walking towards him, still looking shocked.  
  
‘Hey, my mum has a witch-canasta-club that meet at our house every Tuesday. Those ladies  _love me_. I might not be great with the younger generation, but I know how to charm mums.’ James raised a defiant finger to Lily, before walking into their treasure trove of a muggle kitchen. James’s  _favourite_ part of their house.  
  
‘Evening, James.’ Mr Evans spoke in his somewhat lingering Irish accent. He stood from the dining table and made a move towards James with an outstretched hand for shaking, ‘feel like I already know enough about you without this little get-together. Lily-Pad doesn’t stop talking about you.’   
  
‘Dad!’ Lily interjected shortly.   
  
Mr Evans just gave out a hearty chuckle, throwing his head back, ‘Sorry. ‘Suppose you’re not supposed to hear about that.’   
  
‘Do tell me more.’ James teased. Mr Evans was a stocky man and most of his face was hidden behind a thick red beard. His hair was lighter in colour than Lily’s, but he was clearly the ringer out of her two parents to hold the closest resemblance. Petunia clearly took after their mother. Mrs Evans was quite pretty, but clearly was an outdoorsie type in comparison to James’s own mother.  
  
‘Call me Iris, won’t you. I hate formalities.’ Mr Evans continued.  
  
‘I can’t see why I would ever refer to you as anything else. That is a  _ridiculously_ cool name.’ James now realised why both their daughters were named after flowers. They were following a trend.  
  
‘Uh, well it’s not  _actually_  my name. It’s something completely different in Gaelic, but no one can bloody pronounce it and it’s the Gaelic version of Iris, so I gave up.’ Mr Evans laughed again and James was already feeling at home around them. Lily had nothing to worry about.   
  
‘We’ll just sit down to some-’ Mrs Evans started, concentrating on the cups of tea she was walking over to the dining table.  
  
‘Oh let me help!’ James rushed over to alieve her of the duty. Mrs Evans was smiling at him with admiration yet again and James set the cups down before Mr Evans and Lily, who had taken a seat with him. Petunia was still lingering at the kitchen counter.  
  
‘Where’s your moustache?’ Lily shouted over to her and Petunia instant smacked her lips in agitation. James helped Mrs Evans with the last two cups as Petunia replied.  
  
‘He’s meeting with some of his friends from work. You know, his  _job_. He works hard.’   
  
‘That’s good of him. He has to support that moustache somehow.’ Lily nodded, taking a sip of her tea.  
  
Petunia growled, ‘Mum! Make her stop!’   
  
Mr Evans was laughing again. James loved this. The playful banter. The busy kitchen. He suddenly thought of his father and the laugh he always provided when he and Sirius would tell him about their pranks. He smiled as he took a seat beside Mrs Evans and Petunia snapped up the last one, in between her parents.  
  
‘So, Sarah. Could you please entertain me with some information on the economic development of Africa? I’d really love to know more.’ James rested his right elbow on his left wrist, up against his chest, and settled his right fist under his chin. He was ready to listen.   
  
Mrs Evans eyes practically  _gleamed_. From then on, most of the night was spent the same way. With James and Mrs Evans chatting away about muggle health care and economics. It was easy enough for James to wrap his head around. Their worlds weren’t so different. And he explained their similarities to her. They left the Evans home and went out for dinner to their favourite little Italian restaurant in the area.   
  
James couldn’t understand what Lily had meant about ‘good luck’? He was getting along with Mrs Evans  _famously_. She even expressed how delighted she would have been if James became a permanent member of the family, whilst giggling and looking at Lily. Of course James didn’t neglect Mr Evans. He just seemed to have a natural repute with Mrs Evans.  
  
By the time they had returned to the house, Mrs Evans had wrapped an arm around James’s on the walk from the car to the front door. They laughed at the silly little jokes they exchanged between themselves and as they returned to their original place in the Evans kitchen, James helped her get the dessert she’d prepared ready for serving.   
  
‘Oh James you don’t have to help me with the-’  
  
‘Oh my goodness, did you make this all by yourself?’ James asked Mrs Evans as he pulled the pie out of the refrigerator and set it down on the counter carefully.  
  
‘Oh it’s just a banoffee pie, James. It’s not rocket science.’ Mrs Evans giggled again getting plates out.  
  
‘You did this all without  _magic_. You’re an  _artist_ , Sarah!’ As the two flirted away, chatting and serving pieces of the pie they were oblivious to the other three occupants of the room, two who were standing in utter shock. Petunia seemed mildly amused. Mostly because Lily was watching the exchange with a sour look. Mr Evans seemed rather put out, which was saying something for him because we was usually a very relaxed man.  
  
‘Lily-Pad. I think your boyfriend is trying to steal my woman.’ He voiced. Lily turned to look at him and they exchanged a confused stare before looking back at James and Sarah.   
  
Petunia let out a cruel laugh and walked ahead to take a seat where the pie was now served up. Lily’s annoyance only grew while they chatted over the dessert.   
  
‘Oh, James! I’d love for you to stay. But we’re a bit conventional in this household. Oh, but I would  _love_  you to stay.’  
  
‘Oh don’t stress about it, Sarah.’ James waved a casual hand showing his indifference on the matter.   
  
‘We don’t even allow Petunia to have Vernon stay and they’re to be married in a few months’ time!’ Mrs Evans laughed away.   
  
‘I wouldn’t dream of breaking any kind of rules such exemplary parents have put in place. That’s just not my way of doing things.’ James assured her.  
  
Lily snorted across the table. It was certainly true that she wasn’t allowed to stay at James’s house and vice versa. But her parents had to sleep at some point and she could apparate. Not to mention neither her, nor her sister followed their rules while their parents were over on missions in less fortunate countries. It was an unspoken pact between siblings.   
  
Once the pie was finished off they all made their way into the entrance hall of the house to bid James goodnight, bar Petunia who negated the formalities saying she had wedding details to look over. James and Mrs Evans were still chuckling and exchanging little innuendos and Mr Evans came to stand by his wives’ side and shook James hand again.  
  
‘It was great to meet you properly, James. I can see why Lily’s so smitten.’ He said and the three recipients of the exchange all turned to look at Lily. Her face was  _not_  a face of a smitten woman. She was glaring daggers at James.   
  
‘Ah,’ James grinned, ‘I’ll talk to you tomorrow then?’ He leant forward and placed a kiss on her cheek but Lily stood firm, with her arms crossed over her chest. She made a face at him, nodded and looked away.   
  
‘Goodnight then, we’ll do this again!’ James affirmed. Mr Evans had settled an arm around Mrs Evans waist and pulled her in tight and Mrs Evans was looking up at him with a bemused expression.  
  
‘Yes, goodnight, James. We’ll be seeing you soon.’ Mrs Evans ended.   
  
With one last fleeting look at Lily, James decided that was his cue to leave and disapperated from the house, reappearing in his own, much larger entrance hall.  
  
‘In the kitchen, sweetie!’ Mrs Potter called out, hearing him arriving home.   
  
James toddled into the kitchen and took a seat with his mother who had been chatting with a friend of hers, Mabel.   
  
‘What are you two up to? Consorting at this hour?’ James gave his mother and her friend a knowing smile as they sipped glasses of red-currant rum. Mabel chuckled and waved a hand at him.  
  
‘Give a couple of old ladies the liberty of their secrets, Jimmy.’ Mabel said motioning for him to take a seat with them. He spent what was left of the night listening to the silly gossip of his mother and Mabel. He joined in, making the two laugh from time to time. He smiled to himself, thankful his mum wasn’t lonely while he’d been off at school and his father was no longer around.   
  
Once Mabel had disapperated and Mrs Potter had washed up with James’ help, they both headed up to bed. James waited patiently and at a quarter to midnight, Lily appeared with a small pop in his bedroom.   
  
‘How did I go?’ James asked, smiling at her.  
  
Lily stared back at him, deadpanned, ‘oh you went marvellously. Mum won’t shut up about you.’ She crossed her arms over her chest and took a seat at the end of his bed.  
  
‘Uh,’ James was confused, ‘wasn’t that the point of this entire endeavour? Why do you seem angry about that?’  
  
Lily huffed, ‘well Mum wants to  _marry you_  now.’  
  
‘Oh come  _on_ , Lily.’ James laughed.  
  
‘I mean, I may as well have been  _invisible_. Hello, I’m your girlfriend? Not Mum. She’s already  _got_  a husband.’   
  
And with that it clicked. James chuckled for a second before he broke all out into a fit of laughter.  
  
‘You’re  _jealous_?’ James inquired.  
  
‘No!’ Lily threw back, standing up.   
  
James continued to laugh away, but stood and scooped her into a hug, ‘Lily Evans. Do you really believe I’m hot for your mother?’  
  
Lily didn’t reply, she just averted her eyes and pouted towards the floor, trapped in James embrace.   
  
‘Lily,’ James tried to get her attention, ‘Lily. I love you.’ He tried again, ‘I love you. And I love that you’re jealous of your mum’s affection towards me. Lily. Look at me.’ He sang sweetly and Lily’s pout was slowly seizing up as she battled her smile, ‘Lily. You’re so pretty. Lily your eyes are like emeralds. Lily, I love you. Lily, you’re freckles are like little constellations on your face and I adore them. Lily, look at me?’   
  
Lily couldn’t fight her smile anymore and caught James’s eyes, ‘Is your mum asleep?’ She asked with a smirk.  
  
James bit his lip and nodded. When Lily’s hands grasped the bottom of his shirt and tugged at it, he couldn’t help but laugh. There was no possible way he could ever love anyone more than he loved this ridiculous, sex-crazed redhead.


	63. Ali's secret mission

‘Rah!’ Sirius shouted out, jumping behind a couch only to have Tucker scream and scatter from his hiding place, ‘you cannot escape me!’ Sirius laughed running behind the tiny child as Tucker’s infectious laughter echoed around the house.  
  
‘Guys, please be careful.’ Ali asked watching the two of them tear up a path from the sitting room, down the hall passed where she was standing in the doorway of the kitchen and off towards the stairs.  
  
Ali quickly reached out and grabbed a hold of the picture frame on the hall table, containing a picture of Kanika and Tucker laughing together and stabilized it. Instead of yelling at them, she just smiled down at the frame. The pictures of Kanika around the house were slowly transitioning into nice reminders of her mother, instead of a source of pain. She touched the part her mother was taking up and watched as she tickled Tucker and laughed along with her tiny son, who was no older than three when it was taken.  
  
‘I made sandwiches!’ She called out putting the picture back down. She heard Tucker’s high-pitched giggling and Sirius’s triumphant laughter signalling Sirius had caught the renegade little hide-ee.  
  
‘Coming!’ The two of them called down the stairs to her.   
  
‘It’s hot, it’s hot, it’s hot, it’s  _hot_!’ Tucker sang jumping down each of the stairs and proceeding to slide down the last three to the bottom, ‘it’s hot lets go to the  _beach_!’  
  
‘We don’t  _have_  beaches around here, Tuck.’ Ali replied, ushering him into the kitchen where she had sandwiches made on the dining table, ‘and it’s getting late. You remember what happens when you swim at dusk back home?’  
  
‘You get eaten by sharks!’ Tucker yelped and grabbed a hold of Sirius’s jeans where he stood beside the taller boy.  
  
‘What are you filling his head with?’ Sirius stared incredulously at Ali, reaching down and lifting Tucker up into his arms.  
  
‘It’s true.’ Ali shrugged, trying to keep her smirk to herself as she took a seat at the table.  
  
‘Don’t listen to her. Sharks can’t hurt wizards. We’re the superior species.’ Sirius whispered to Tucker, lowering him into a seat, ‘your sister is just pulling your leg.’  
  
‘Lee-yah’s a big nerd though. She knows stuff.’ Tucker looked at Sirius, nodding as Sirius took a seat. Sirius looked at Aaliyah. She was smiling down at the small novel she had open in her hand. She took a bite of her sandwich, pretending she wasn’t listening.  
  
‘Is that what she tells you?’ Sirius continued to stare at his girlfriend’s mischievous grin as she ignored them.  
  
Sirius leant into the tiny child to whisper, ‘believe me, Tucker. You’re a lot more switched on than your dear old sis.’ Tucker grinned back at him, enjoying the flattery.  
  
Over the last two weeks Sirius had spent most days lounging around with Ali and her baby brother. Tucker was an amazing kid. He was starting to understand why Ali went on tangents about how special he was. He was the wittiest, most adorable child he’d ever had continuous contact with.  
  
Just as Ali looked ready to argue with him, placing her book face-down on the table to hold her place, there was a tap at the window. All occupants of the kitchen turned around to see a barn owl waiting there. Aaliyah jumped up and scrambled to the window to let it in.  
  
Sirius felt a small pang over that. Ever since she had missed getting her mother’s letter on time, she never allowed an owl to wait outside. She was clearly still battling a few things. But Sirius had noted she was holding herself together better lately. He wished he was able to stay the nights with her, to make sure she wasn’t falling asleep with tears in her eyes. But Christian wasn’t really his biggest fan. And Sirius was pretty sure he had no idea about the two of them sharing a bed for the better part of a month at the end of the term.  
  
‘It’s a letter from Dumbledore!’ Ali looked up smiling, ‘he wants us all here tonight. He’s going to have a meeting with my dad and a few other members and he thought it would be as good a time as any.’  
  
‘That’s great!’ Sirius exclaimed, watching Snowball stalk in through the ajar back door, catching sight of the barn owl on the counter where Ali had put down a little cup of water for him. Snowball stared up at the owl as his fluffy tail flicked lazily from one side to the other.  
  
‘That means you can’t run away tonight.’ Ali waved the letter in his direction as she fell back against the counter. Tucker giggled beside him and Sirius turned to the child to see smears of peanut butter to either side of his mouth.  
  
Sirius reached forward and wiped the rogue spread from his face, smiling, ‘I don’t  _run away_. I just have things to, you know, do. At night. Important things.’  
  
‘You’re scared of Dad.’ Tucker smiled at him as Sirius finished cleaning his face.  
  
‘I am not.’ He defied the five year old. He could hear Ali laughing in the background.  
  
‘You shouldn’t be scared of Dad. He’s not scary. Mum was scary!’ Tucker nodded and Sirius stiffened, ‘Mum was the scariest person I ever met. I feel sorry for the baddy that she saved those kids from. He must have been terrified when she was done with him.’ Tucker nodded with a smile.  
  
Sirius instantly turned around to look at Ali before answering Tucker. She wasn’t smiling, but instead just watching Snowball where he sat on the floor. He was in a standing position now, leaning back, ready to jump onto the counter. He launched himself up and the poor owl took flight out of the window in almost the same moment.  
  
Sirius looked back at Ali, and she was still focused on the floor.  
  
‘Hey, Tuck? You wanna go draw me some stuff? Some cool new robe designs?’ Sirius nodded, looking at Tucker. Tucker became instantaneously excited and got down from his chair. ‘Make sure it had heaps of glitter!’ He shouted as Tucker ran from the room off to the sitting room where his extensive range of quills were waiting for him.  
  
‘You alright?’ Sirius got up, going over to Ali. He turned to rest up against the counter with her, taking the letter from her hand and putting it on the bench. He looked at Ali and she raised her head and smiled.  
  
‘Fine.’ She sounded sincere enough but her expression was somewhat empty.  
  
Sirius watched her for a moment, then leant forward and kissed her. As he drew back, he traced every inch of her face with his eyes and smiled at her.  
  
‘You’re okay. I’ve got you.’ He reached out brushing a few stray hairs from her face.  
  
A real smile replaced the emptiness on her face as she turned to Sirius properly. She reached a hand up and pulled it back through his hair, watching it go. Then she kissed him, pressing her body up against him, trapping him against the counter.  
  
Sirius had a minor back-thought that it was getting late and that Christian would be home soon. But it disappeared about as fast as it came. Ali reached her arms up and rested them on his shoulders, going back again and again for more kisses. Sirius melted into the contact, placing his hands on the back of her hips. When Ali pulled back he couldn’t help but frown from the loss of warmth even in the summer heat.  
  
‘I’m going to run up and have a shower. I expect Dumbledore wrote to everyone, so they’ll be over shortly.’ She explained, coming back for one more kiss, ‘can you keep an eye on Tucker?’  
  
Sirius nodded blearily, smiling at her. She kissed him on the cheek and leant forward grabbing Snowball off the bench where he had taken refuge, then left the room. Sirius savoured the contact for a moment, before standing properly and leaving the kitchen also, grabbing the remains of his sandwich and eating it as he walked.  
  
When he was out in the hall, walking towards the sitting room, he noticed the one picture that had moved on the hall table. He looked down at it. Kanika and little Tucker were laughing away like nothing in their lives could go wrong. Sirius sighed.  
  
He knelt down before the picture and looked around at the sea of little Kanika’s and the rest of the Adams’. One particular photo was quite an old photo. One of just Kanika and Christian, probably before Ali was even born. They looked baby faced and couldn’t keep their eyes off each other.  
  
The way Christian was looking at Kanika… Sirius knew that look. It was the one he had just given Ali in the kitchen. A sudden irrational fear entered his mind of Ali throwing herself in front of a killing curse meant for a muggle child. An image of his lifeless girlfriend flashed before him and he had to take a hold of the hall table to steady himself. That wasn’t something Sirius could allow.  
  
He heard the shower turning on upstairs and steadied his breathing, getting back onto his feet. He entered the sitting room but Tucker wasn’t in there. Sirius looked around for him, trying not to freak out.  
  
‘Tucker?’ He said quietly enough that it wouldn’t reach up the stairs, ‘Tuck?’  
  
As he turned to leave the room a tiny force smashed into his legs and cried out before it started laughing. Sirius looked down to find Tucker quite beside himself. It caused an echo effect, making Sirius laugh also. After they calmed down, Tucker grabbed a hold of Sirius and dragged him further into the room, sitting him down at the coffee table where he took a seat in Sirius’s lap to continue on drawing.  
  
Some time passed them by before Ali came down the stairs to join them with her hair wet and smelling of floral soaps. Sirius had his chin rested on the top of Tucker’s head as he drew and Ali came to sit by them. When Sirius turned to look at her, the thought of her perishing in battle came back to him and he reached out and pulled her into his body. Ali chuckled a little from the forced contact but hugged him back and pulled a hand over Tucker’s curly brown hair as her head fell against Sirius’s shoulder.  
  
‘You’re not going to apparate away as soon as Dad gets home, are you?’ Ali asked, her head still rested against him.  
  
‘Can’t actually.’ Sirius admitted, still holding on perhaps a little too tight, ‘I actually flew here today.’  
  
‘Flew? What, on a broom?’ Ali sat up to look at him.  
  
‘No, not quite.’ Sirius couldn’t help his growing grin. Ali stared at him waiting for a reply. Tucker stopped his scribbling and looked up at him from his lap.  
  
‘Well? On what?’ Ali asked as Snowball stalked into the room and brushed himself up against the leg of the coffee table.  
  
‘Snow!’ Tucker cried out, diving for the cat. Snowball tried to make an escape off towards one of the armchairs and Tucker pursued him, crawling along the ground.  
  
‘How about I show you?’ Sirius got to his feet and offered a hand down to Ali, whose wet hair looked significantly darker than it did dry, bringing out the brightness of her eyes.  
  
Ali didn’t really protest. She only looked back once to make sure Tucker was okay, as Sirius dragged her from the room, down the short hall and out through the front door. Once they were outside, he took her around the side of the house where he had parked his bike and Ali’s jaw dropped.  
  
Sirius had spent his boring nights alone, tinkering with the bike. Peter and Remus had joined him now and then, all trying different sorts of enchantments, trying to get the thing into the air. Sirius was almost completely confident riding it and just last night the boys had managed to make it fly.   
  
‘What’s this? Is that a muggle thing?’ Ali looked up at him as they stopped before it, ‘you _flew_  this?’  
  
‘Yeah, baby.’ Sirius waggled his eyebrows at her in what was supposed to be a seductive way but Ali just laughed at him, pushing his face away with her hand so to get a better view of the strange looking, shiny bike.  
  
‘Is it dangerous?’ She inquired, reaching a hand out to touch the polished metal.  
  
‘Nah, not if you know how to ride it. Wormtail actually coached me. Would you believe that? Pudgy-Pete and his hidden talents.’ Sirius shook his head in wonderment.  
  
‘Don’t call him pudgy.’ Ali threw back immediately before giving him a stern look. But it faded away soon after as she looked back at the motorbike.  
  
‘Yes, ma’am.’ He returned with a smile, ‘I can take you for a ride on it?’ He leant in to whisper, coming up behind her and kissing her neck. It was damp and cool from her shower still.   
  
‘Ugh,’ Ali complained, turning around to look at him, ‘what have you done to me?’ She glared at him.  
  
‘What?’ Sirius raised a confused brow.  
  
‘Now I find crazy muggle contraptions  _appealing_? Since when? Who even am I?’ Ali seemed to be rather disturbed by her own feelings. Sirius just laughed at that and leant in to kiss her against the bike.  
  
‘You’re my girl, you have to find crazy muggle contraptions appealing. It’s half of my charm.’ Sirius explained, going in for another kiss.  
  
‘You don’t have charm,’ Ali argued as he pulled back, ‘you’re a giant, great git that’s more trouble than my five year old brother and you’re going to give me grey hairs.’  
  
‘Mm,’ Sirius hummed, going in for another kiss, which Ali was certainly not objecting to, ‘that’s the other half of my charm.’ He admitted and Ali laughed. There was next to nothing that filled him with more joy than hearing her laughter.   
  
Sirius lifted Ali up under her arms and perched her on the bike only to continue kissing her as he slipped in between her legs. She rested her arms on his shoulders as he used his hands to keep her safely on the seat, sweeping them up and down the sides of her waist. It was when they were particularly invested in a lengthy kiss and Ali had secured a fistful of his hair, that someone cleared their throat beyond them.  
  
The two of them became so startled from the noise that Ali nearly fell off the bike. Sirius only just managed to catch her in time and pull her to safety. When they turned to see Christian standing with his arms folded over his chest, Sirius jumped three feet away from Ali in one fluid movement.  
  
‘Hi, Daddy.’ Ali said trying to hold back a laugh by covering it up with a cough. Sirius wasn’t the slightest bit amused.  
  
‘Hello, Mr Adams.’ He felt his gut wrench. This was all he needed. The man already seemed to hate him and now he caught him snogging his baby girl on a muggle death contraption! All was lost. There was no coming back from this.  
  
‘Inside.  _Both_  of you.’ Christian watched them with a bland expression. It was the same look Ali used to give him when he would throw sly little innuendo’s her way or she would catch him in sticky pranking situations. Ali  _definitely_  took after her father in the looks department. No doubt about that.   
  
‘Yes, sir.’ Sirius nodded. He wasn’t quite sure why he called him sir. But it was most likely just a remnant from the way he used to speak to his own father. There was never a “daddy” exchanged in those conversations, as far and between as they had been.   
  
Ali hopped down off the bike a little clumsier than she was probably hoping to and Sirius instantly reached out to steady her. His hands were off her in nano seconds after she was standing and he was looking back at Christian. But the tall, blonde man didn’t seem fazed. He just watched them with a calculating stare.  
  
‘Come on,’ Sirius heard Ali whisper as she took one of his hands and lead him off towards the front door and back inside the four walls of the house. Once they were inside, Tucker popped his head around the kitchen door and came out with a defeated looking Snowball in his arms.   
  
The door shut behind them and both Ali and Sirius jumped from the noise, wheeling around to see Christian with the same calculating stare fixed on them.  
  
‘So,’ Christian started but then Snowball whined and suddenly he was running by Ali and Sirius’s feet and off towards the stairs.  
  
‘Snowy! Come back!’ Tucker cried crawling through Sirius’s legs and unbalancing him. Tucker darted straight by his father in pursuit of the fluffy white cat. Once he had taken the stairs on all fours and was out of sight, Christian turned back to the two teenagers before him.   
  
As if on a timer, suddenly there was a loud crack and James and Lily appeared in the entrance hall, ‘see! I told you, Lily! Perfect aim! Oh, sorry there, Mr Adams.’  
  
James flicked around realising they weren’t alone and held a hand out for Christian to take. There was only a tense silence for less than five seconds before Christian reached out and took his hand, shaking it.  
  
‘Evening, Potter. Good to see you again.’ Christian replied, and suddenly Sirius felt his eye twitch.   
  
‘Hello, Mr Adams. I expected you might have been home a bit later. It’s good to see you though.’ Lily stepped forward to greet him and was welcomed just as strongly as James was by the head of the Adams house. Sirius’s frown deepened. He heard Ali stifle a laugh to his side and turned to her.  
  
‘Why are you laughing? Nothing about this is funny.’ Sirius hissed but it only made Ali snort and cover her mouth with her hand. Another crack signalled more arrivals upstairs, and Tucker’s high pitched squeal made Christian dart into action. He took the stairs three at a time and Ali pushed by Sirius to call out to him.  
  
‘Is he okay?’ But she barely needed to ask because a few moments later Tucker was laughing and Christian could be heard sighing.  
  
‘Bloody hell, Fletcher! Diggle! We have a front door!’ Christian’s voice echoed down the stairs. But as the words faded there was a knock at the door before Lily and James even had a chance to greet Sirius and Ali.  
  
‘I’ll get it!’ Ali called up the stairs and moved by James and Lily to flick up the safety latch and open the front door, ‘Hello, Professor!’ Ali stepped aside and Dumbledore gave the occupants of the entrance hall all a warm smile.  
  
‘Good evening everyone. You all seem to be on time. I found this one a bit lost out on the street.’ Dumbledore affirmed stepping inside. Behind him stood Remus, looking shabby and a little embarrassed. James cracked into a fit of laughter, launching forward to hug his friend. Once they were both inside, Ali shut the door behind them. The small hall only became more cramped as Christian came down the stairs, Tucker in his arms and two young men in tow.   
  
‘This was a lot easier when we had that big old house in Newcastle, this one’s a little on the smaller side.’ Christian chuckled, manoeuvring by the younger ones of the growing crowd and motioned everyone to follow him. Dumbledore was first in line, breaking into instant conversation with Christian.  
  
‘Oy, watch it there mate.’ The first man said, slinking by them all. Sirius got a distinct whiff of alcohol and tobacco as he went and from the look of the younger man, he wasn’t among the most hygienic of people. Grubby was the best descriptive word that came to mind.   
  
‘Sorry, excuse me.’ The second man apologised as he went, he was quite tiny and had a slight spring in his step. He was dressed head to toe in the brightest purple dress robes any of them had ever seen. He turned back to give them all a dazzling, toothy smile before he disappeared into the sitting room along with the rest of them.   
  
‘Well, hello!’ James cried, swooping Ali into a hug as she protested. Sirius tried not to laugh and moved forward to give Lily a hug.  
  
‘I hope you’ve been behaving.’ He gave her a look but Lily just shoved him.  
  
‘Knock next time.’ She frowned at him, but it wasn’t long before she was smiling. Ali was greeting Remus when Sirius heard him ask to group as a whole-  
  
‘Uh, is… would Marlene be attending?’ He seemed a little more bashful than he usually would and Sirius furrowed his brow in concern.  
  
‘Oh, she’s on a trip with her parents. Celebrating her graduation.’ Lily explained. Remus nodded away in understanding. He looked a little pained about it but didn’t press the matter.  
  
‘Where’s Pettigrew?’ Ali asked, looking around.  
  
‘He said he had to go home and see his Mum, but he’d be along.’ James explained, ‘he was over at mine earlier on today when we all got the letters.’ He finished, but suddenly there was another knock at the door and Ali stopped her greeting of Lily to answer it.  
  
‘Oh, hello Mr Bones.’ Ali stepped aside, allowing a tall man with wild brown hair and a thick moustache into the room.  
  
‘Hey, kiddo. You get bigger every time I see you.’ He rubbed the top of her head before taking off his coat and looking around, ‘haven’t met any of you before. Are we recruiting teenagers now?’  
  
‘This is Sirius, James, Lily and Remus, Mr Bones. They’re all friends of mine at school. They’ve just graduated.’ Ali explained and Sirius felt the slightest twinge at being referred to as a “friend”.  
  
‘Oh, hey Edgar!’ Christian interrupted coming out through the door. He had Tucker with him and placed him down as he continued, ‘the rest are inside, go on ahead.’  
  
‘Good to see you, Chris.’ Edgar shook his friends hand vigorously as he left the rest of them and approached the sitting room entrance. Tucker waddled over towards Sirius and the others and yawned, grabbing a hold of Sirius’s jeans.   
  
‘You tired little man?’ Sirius asked looking down at him. Tucker instantly shook his head, giving Sirius the sourest look. It was as if he had been personally dishonoured.  
  
‘I am almost  _six_. I don’t get  _tired_.’ But the minute he finished, he broke into another yawn.  
  
‘Albus wants you kids in there as well, I was just going to put him down.’ Christian indicated but Sirius intervened, reaching down and pulling Tucker up into his arms.  
  
‘It’s okay. You guys go on in. I’ve got him.’ Sirius announced, pulling Tucker’s head in against his chest. There wasn’t much of a fight, as most of the day had been spent running around chasing each other. It was a wonder the little boy had lasted this long.   
  
‘Hey, next time we’ll have to come over in the day and get better acquainted.’ James stepped forward, running a hand softly over Tucker’s mess of dark curls. Tucker looked up at James, bleary eyed and blinked.  
  
‘I dunno. I already have one nerd in my entourage. I’ll have to see if I have any openings.’ Tucker choked out, reaching up to tap one of the lenses of James’ glasses. Lily broke into laughter first, but she was soon followed by Sirius and James while Ali and Remus held themselves together in the immediate distance.   
  
‘Goodnight, Tucker.’ Ali moved forward, kissing him on the head.   
  
‘Not goodnight. I’m not tired. I want to-’ before he could finish, his tiny mouth opened wide letting out yet another yawn.  
  
‘Come on.’ Sirius smiled, moving for the stairs. He heard the rest of the company all head for the meeting, but was happy to be of some use. He never really considered himself a kid person. But Tucker made him laugh. And he wasn’t the kind of child that cried when they didn’t get their way. He was so mature it was almost like he was at least double his age.   
  
But as Sirius got to the top of their stairs and Tucker’s mumbling argument slowly died off, he showed his age in the way that his eyes began to shut of their own accord the minute Sirius lowered him down onto his bed. His room was filled with colour. He had materials littering the floor and bright coloured stuffed animals, among cauldron sets, an assortment of tiny moving figurines and more coloured quills and bits of scribbled on parchment than Sirius cared to count.   
  
Sirius was tucking him under his covers when Snowball jumped up onto the bed and sniffed around. Sirius watched him, but he seemed to be merely sussing out the interaction. After a moment, he came closer, pawed at the blankets and curled up next to where Tucker was breathing heavily with sleep. Sirius smiled at the two of them and left the room, turning down the gas lamp on his way out.   
  
After spending so much time with her little brother and Ali over the past two weeks, Sirius felt he was becoming even more attached to not only Ali, but her family as a whole. He was starting to realise that most of the reason Christian scared him so much, was because he was almost desperate for the man to like him. It wasn’t something he was used to. Having to try so hard to impress someone.   
  
Mostly he wasn’t overly fussed about people’s feelings towards him. His parents had both hated him. His brother had practically disowned him. Mr Potter was gone now, which hurt Sirius more than he cared to admit. Mrs Potter was so easy to please, she was all he really had in the way of parental figures. He smiled at the thought of her as he silently crept down the stairs. He really couldn’t lose her.  
  
As the thought entered his mind, he stopped by the hall table again, looking down at Kanika. She might have been a little full-on, but she had been kind to Sirius. Even though he’d only had one brief encounter with the woman. Thinking of her final moments made him frown. Now her daughter and son would have to grow up without a mother. And her husband was left alone.  _That_  was terrifying.  _War_  was terrifying.   
  
‘You coming in?’ Sirius was startled out of his thoughts, looking up too see Christian waiting by the entrance to the sitting room.   
  
‘Uh, yes. Sure. Sir!’ Sirius instantly wanted to smack himself in the forehead.   
  
Christian caught him off guard though and moved over to look down at the photos with him. They both stood in silence for a moment, before Sirius looked away from the older man, down to his late wife’s pictures.  
  
‘You- you miss her?’ As soon as he said the words, he regretted it. He frowned in annoyance with himself. Of course Christian missed his  _wife_. How stupid a question could he  _ask_?   
  
Christian was looking at him when he stopped chastising himself. The older, weary looking man took in a sharp breath before looking back at the photos.  
  
‘Every second, of every hour-’ Christian’s voice held steady enough, but he caught himself and had to swallow before continuing, ‘-of every day.’ He finished, touching the old photo containing his younger self and Kanika.   
  
‘I-’ Sirius started, but stopped himself wondering if it was okay to admit this. Looking down at the photo again, he couldn’t stop himself, ‘I don’t know if I want her joining. I mean, I know she’s determine. She wants to help. But- but what if she gets herself hurt? What if she- what if she-’ he couldn’t bring himself to say the words.  
  
Sirius swallowed and slowly looked back to Christian, not knowing what to expect from him. Christian stood in the same place he was before. He was giving Sirius the same calculating stare he had when he had caught the two outside by the bike. He was weighing him up. Judging him. Usually Sirius would have turned on the polite, circumventing charm. Or perhaps ignored him altogether and negated any kind of talking. But he really wanted some kind of approval from this man.   
  
‘You really care for her, don’t you?’ Christian finally spoke. Sirius locked his eyes onto Christian’s blue ones and nodded. Christian snorted out a short laugh and broke into a smile.   
  
‘You’re going to have a tough time if you think you have any control over a girl- uh,’ Christian sighed, ‘a woman like Ali.’ He corrected, ‘she takes after her mother more than she takes after me. Even if she doesn’t look it. Everything is going to be done her way. She knows more than you. She’ll fight if she wants to fight. And so help you if you try to baby her.’ Christian looked as if he knew firsthand what happened to you if you patronized an Adams woman.   
  
‘So… so we just let her? Run out and fight death eaters?’ Sirius sounded more concerned than he wanted to let on.   
  
‘Merlin, no.’ Christian looked at him as if he were mad, ‘you don’t think I’d allow my daughter to go the same way I lost my wife? I’ve spoken to Albus. He’s letting her join on my word only. She’s not to do anything extensive while she’s still at school. And even then, I don’t want her in the front lines. She’s hurting too much to think clearly at the moment.’   
  
‘This might sound selfish… but I’m glad.’ Sirius looked down at the floor, not knowing whether it was okay to feel comforted knowing Ali was being held back from what she really wanted.  
  
‘Just don’t tell  _her_  you said that.’ Christian gave him a small, lopsided smirk before straightening himself back up, ‘she’s happier. When you’re around, she’s happier. She’s less- strung out. She relaxes and laughs more.’ Christian admitted looking up towards the ceiling and shoving his hands in his pockets.   
  
Suddenly his eyes flashed back to Sirius though, and it made Sirius jump, ‘but you are  _forbidden_  from taking her out on that muggle-bike.’  
  
‘Yes, sir!’ Sirius replied instantly.  
  
Christian’s face softened and he allowed himself another smile, ‘Just Chris. And you better get in there if you want to hear any of it.’ Christian motioned his head towards the door.   
  
‘Yes, uh, Chris.’ Sirius felt overly awkward saying his name so casually. But he didn’t delay them further and entered the sitting room with Christian close behind him.   
  
Dumbledore was speaking to everyone in the room. He paused momentarily as the two entered and gave them both a soft smile before continuing, ‘as I was saying. Our most important objective right now is to protect the innocents. We can’t have any more large scale attacks like London. We’re all keeping our eyes and ears open, but I want to set up precautionary perimeters around highly populated areas. And I want lookouts around the largest wizarding communities. That’s where you all come in.  
  
                ‘I want to break you into groups of two. We’ll set up another, more formal meeting where you can meet everyone. Alastor Moody will be making up a roster for shifts to be taken. And those not on shift work, I will have specified missions for you to complete. Times are growing darker, but together I believe we have a chance at fighting back. Uh, Aaliyah… I have a separate mission for you.’  
  
Sirius had taken to standing behind the part of the couch Ali had settled into, and he stiffened at the mention of exclusion-specifics. His attention flickered over to where Christian was standing beside the door and the tall man’s eyes were wandering up towards the ceiling while he rocked back on his heels.  
  
‘Really, Professor?’ Ali sounded engaged. Not like she was being made a fool of.   
  
‘Yes, I’ll talk to you outside afterwards.’ Dumbledore nodded to her with an expression of the utmost importance, ‘Mundungus and Dedalus, I need to have a private word with you two, Edgar, and Christian though.’ And with those words, the younger generation knew they shouldn’t push their luck and got to their feet and moved towards the door.  
  
As Ali passed her father, he kissed her quickly on the forehead before she ducked outside of the room. When Sirius stepped by him, he supplied him with knowing grin before he made his way off towards where Dumbledore stood with the others.   
  
Once they were out in the hall, there was a knock at the door and they all flicked around as Ali went to answer it. As she opened the door, she started laughing almost instantly. James, Lily and Remus, along with Sirius, all peered around the door as Ali clung to it to hold herself up.  
  
‘I apparated into a pond.’ Peter stood in the doorway, looking less than impressed. He was soaking wet and had a few twigs and stray bits of algae smeared on his clothes. The chorus of laughter after he spoke was so loud, Tucker appeared, rubbing his eyes at the top of the stairs in a few minutes time.  
  
Ali darted up to grab her little brother, as Lily and Remus helped Peter dry his clothes and clean himself up with their wands. By the time everyone had calmed down, Ali was leading them into the kitchen where everyone took seats and Tucker began falling asleep in her arms. They chatted about their holidays and filled Peter in about what he missed.   
  
‘Well patrols can’t be so bad. Especially if we’re in two’s.’ Peter seemed a little more at ease with their assignments, ‘I can’t tell Mum though. She’ll strangle me.’ He finished looking off into the distance, fear etched on his face. There was a shared chuckle around the room as Christian entered.  
  
‘We should probably all head off,’ Lily proposed politely.   
  
‘You’re more than welcome to hang around.’ Christian spoke, moving towards Ali. He reached down and lifted Tucker up into his arms, ‘I’ve got some stuff to do for work anyway and I’m sure Ali would like the company.’ Tucker barely seemed to notice the shift from his sister’s lap to his father’s arms, he was so worn out.   
  
‘Albus is waiting for you out in the hall though Ali-bear.’ Christian explained and Ali jumped onto her feet.  
  
The rest of the group started talking again as Christian left behind Ali, but Sirius made his way over to the door to listen in.  
  
‘I hoped you might help me keep an eye on things at the school, Aaliyah.’ Dumbledore spoke as Sirius watched them through the crack.  
  
‘Of course, Professor. What do you need me to do?’  
  
‘Well, it’s not overly conventional of me to tell you this before the letters have been sent out. But I do expect you know I have had you in mind for Head Girl.’ Ali seemed to stand up straighter from what Sirius could see of her, ‘As for your counterpart… I have a purpose for selecting him. I feel there are a few at Hogwarts that are in dire need of extra care. A helping hand to lead them in the right direction, so to say.’   
  
‘Yes, sir?’  
  
‘So I will be making your counterpart Head Boy, Regulus Black. And I need you to keep a close eye on him and his group of friends.’ As Dumbledore finished, Ali made a point of agreeing. They spoke for a few moments longer, but Sirius had tuned out. Sirius quickly stepped away from the door before Ali re-entered, looking happier than she had in months.   
  
She threw her arms around Sirius before he could ask about the conversation and pretend he hadn’t been listening in. The night continued on and Ali was in high spirits. The group of friends chatted together in the kitchen, laughing away about nothing in particular. They located an old deck to play exploding snap with and Ali and James became rather competitive. Sirius, on the other hand, lingered away from them all, lost in thought.  
  
Christian joined them in the kitchen well after Dumbledore had left and provided them with an unconventional dinner of breakfast foods. Apparently he hadn’t learnt how to cook much else. Sirius felt the ridged attitude once held towards him by Ali’s father, dwindling. It would have made him a lot happier if he hadn’t been overwhelmed by the conflicting emotions of his girlfriend having to keep an eye on his baby brother.   
  
Was Dumbledore really that concerned about Regulus? What was he getting himself into? He did hang out with a bad crowd, but he always believed his brother to be a little above their standards. Was Dumbledore worried that he was veering towards the dark arts? It wouldn’t be overly surprising. But if he was, if he was going that way, Sirius wasn’t sure he wanted Ali getting involved in it.   
  
By the time everyone was heading home, Sirius was still off with the fairies.   
  
‘Are you there, or are you day dreaming about that bike of yours?’ Ali whispered in his ear. When he looked around he realised it was just the two of them left in the kitchen.  
  
‘Huh? Oh… no. I mean, maybe? If you were interested we could go and have another look at it.’ Sirius chimed in, grinning at his innuendo.  
  
‘Are you sure? I mean, my Dad’s home. You don’t want to run away yet?’ She asked, pulling his chair back and lifting a leg over his lap to sit down on him, their faces inches apart.   
  
‘I-’ As if by magic, every thought invading Sirius’s mind was washed away and replaced with the girl before him, ‘I’m not running anywhere.’   
  
‘Oh. That’s good.’ She kissed him on the cheek.  
  
‘What were you talking about with Dumbledore?’ Sirius inquired innocently as Ali kissed him again.   
  
‘It’s a secret.’ Ali replied with another kiss. Sirius expected this kind of answer. This was Aaliyah Adams he was dealing with.   
  
‘Oh yeah, I forgot. I’m just a friend after all.’ Sirius pulled her back gently giving her an unimpressed look.   
  
‘What?’ Ali looked confused, but also a little entertained.   
  
‘Oh you know, I’m just your friend. Your friend that graduated recently. Just a mate, really.’ Sirius stood up, stepping away from her. Ali started laughing in the background at his obvious ridiculousness.  
  
‘You’re sulking. Of course, you’re sulking.’ Ali confirmed aloud, taking Sirius’s hand as he headed for the kitchen door and made it out into the hall.  
  
‘Where’s your father?’ Sirius queried, looking around.  
  
‘In the study, working on some ministry case.’ Ali muttered cracking her neck and yawning.  
  
‘Walk me outside then?’ Sirius smiled at her.  
  
‘Hm,’ Ali thought about it as they got to the front door, ‘no, I don’t think so. I don’t concern myself with prolonged goodbyes with  _acquaintances._ ’ She cackled evilly as she pushed him outside and shut the door in his face.   
  
Sirius stood on their front steps, jaw dropped, trying not to laugh. He didn’t know what it was, but the ruder Ali was to him, the more he desired her. He knew he’d be back over in the morning anyway and so he walked down to his bike with a smile on his face. He climbed on, kicked up the kickstand, started the engine and rode off into the darkness. He stayed grounded just until he was sure no one would be able to see him taking off into the night sky.


	64. Torn

_December,_ 1967  
  
Regulus had been lying awake in bed for some time already. He knew his big brother wasn’t the morning type, so he tried not to bother him too early. For a boy of six, it wouldn’t have been unheard of for him to be up and about, making noise around the house the moment his eyes were open. But Regulus knew that getting out of bed too early aggravated his father and mother and he didn’t like angering his parents. So he stayed in bed until he knew Sirius wouldn’t get cross with him for creeping into his room. Because Sirius was the only thing in their large house that comforted him.  
  
As he lay in bed, he wiggled his feet around under the blankets and kept his arms by his sides. It was extremely cold, as it was Christmas Eve, so Regulus had the blankets up around his chin. He scanned the roof overhead and heard creaking of the floorboards outside his door. He knew it would have to have been either one of their house elves. It was more likely to be young Kreacher than his mother, who was getting along in her age and was barely much use anymore. Mostly she just muttered about her head being chopped off and mounted on the wall, which unnerved Regulus. He tended to steer clear of her as much as was possible.   
  
Once Regulus was sure the sun was almost up, signalling it as an acceptable time to  _be_  up, he fumbled into a crawling position and shimmed over to the side of his bed. He slipped his little legs over the edge, stomach down, and dropped silently to the floor. It was  _freezing_  out of the covers. He grabbed his dressing gown and pulled his little arms through each sleeve before making his way towards his door.  
  
He had to reach up to get the door knob properly and turned it as quietly as was possible. He barely opened it, slipping through the crack and decided against shutting it in case that caused too much noise. His bedroom was very close to his mother and father’s. He saw little Kreacher in the hall, dusting off a portrait and managed to dodge the elf. Not that Kreacher was scary, he just knew him to be a lot more loyal to his parents than anything else. And he didn’t want to get in any kind of trouble so close to Christmas.  
  
When he got to Sirius’s door, he repeated his previous actions of reaching up, turning the knob and slipping inside the crack. Sirius’s door  _always_  creaked. No matter how hard you tried, or how slow you opened it. So Regulus figured that doing it as quickly as possible worked the best. It took a fair amount to rouse his brother from sleep and their parents’ bedroom was at the opposite end of the hall, so it didn’t matter much.  
  
Once he was inside, he tiptoed over to Sirius’s bed and smiled, still not having spoken a word. He got down to his knees and sidled up to the head of Sirius’s bed, settling his chin on the mattress to watch his brother sleep. Sirius’s mouth was open and he was breathing heavily through it. Probably due to the cold and having a blocked nose. Regulus tried not to laugh, but a little giggle escaped when Sirius took a particularly deep breath which cracked into a snore.   
  
His little boyish giggle disturbed Sirius, but not much. Sirius frowned and adjusted his head in the pillow. Regulus continued to watch him, growing colder and colder with only his thin black gown to cover his thin silk pyjamas. He reached out after a while and tickled the end of Sirius’s nose. Sirius frowned again, his hand launching up to swat away the nuisance. Regulus was too quick though and dodged it.   
  
This continued on for as long as it entertained Regulus. Which was quite a while. The sun was high enough in the sky that it was creeping in through Sirius’s window and settling its reach over the foot of Sirius’s bed. Regulus watched the little dust particles floating in the beam of light, and when he looked back at Sirius, he decided he had waited long enough. He reached out and plucked a hair from his brother’s head and Sirius jolted awake.  
  
‘Ouch! Reg!’ Sirius glared at him.   
  
Regulus giggled, falling over onto his backside and letting go of the clutch he had on the front of his dressing gown. Sirius looked down at him, rubbing the slight pain of his damaged hair follicle. When Regulus stopped laughing, and looked back at his brother, Sirius was shaking his head.  
  
‘Come on then,’ Sirius said, lifting up his blankets and Regulus scrambled to get in.  
  
‘You didn’t notice for  _ages_  this time.’ Regulus explained, joining his big brother in his warm bed. Sirius just wrapped his arms around his little brother, pulling him in tight and settling his head back down on his pillow. He shut his eyes again and yawned.  
  
‘You’re a master of stealth.’ Sirius commended him, only with a tiny smirk. He brought one hand up and started running it over Regulus’s well-kept hair. The boys both had the same haircuts. It was almost hard to tell the two apart, besides Regulus being so much smaller than Sirius.   
  
‘Siri?’ Regulus spoke, snuggling further into his brother’s embrace while Sirius sporadically dragged a hand over his hair, lulling him into a premature sleepy haze.  
  
‘Mm?’ Sirius hummed a quiet reply.  
  
‘Do you think tomorrow will be fun?’ Regulus asked innocently. Holidays in the Black household had always been the same. The families would all unite and gather at their residence, but it was never much fun. Somehow Sirius always managed to aggravate their mother and their cousins knew just as well as they did that they should behave when guests were over,  _especially_  when they were the guests.   
  
‘We’ll make it fun, Reg.’ Sirius whispered, eyes still shut, but a little grin creeping on his baby face.   
  
‘Do you think, Bell, Dromeda, and Cissy will play with us?’ Regulus asked, having Sirius’s hand pull over his hair again in its soothing motion, causing him to yawn this time.   
  
‘Dromeda,  _definitely_. She’s the most fun. Bella, certainly not. Cissy,  _maybe_.’ Sirius mumbled and Regulus listened happily. ‘Bella’s never much liked me since I accidentally exploded a glass of pumpkin juice in her face.’   
  
Regulus giggled at his brother’s words and that’s when Sirius stopped stroking his hair and let go of his little brother, so they could turn in to face one another, their foreheads almost touching on the pillow they were sharing.  
  
‘She was saying all this nasty stuff about the kids at school and it made me so angry. I didn’t  _mean_  to blow it up, but she deserved it. And when she told Aunty Druella, mother smacked me.’ Sirius sighed, pulling his fists up under his chin to combat the cool air entering the confines of the blankets. Regulus mimicked his position, staring back at his brother.   
  
‘Mother’s always smacking you.’ Regulus frowned. It wasn’t that Regulus had avoided their mother’s disciplines, he just received them much less frequently than his big brother seemed to.  
  
‘That’s because I have fun. And she doesn’t like it. So don’t worry, Reg. We’ll have fun tomorrow. I promise you.’ Sirius opened his pale eyes blearily and smiled back at Regulus.   
  
Regulus couldn’t explain it, but out of all the people he had in his life, his big brother made him feel the warmest. He was okay, as long as Sirius was around. Their mother and father never paid them too much attention, unless they were demanding things of them. But Sirius was different. He was always there. He was always causing some kind of trouble. He made Regulus giggle and laugh. Regulus treasured his big brother like no other.   
  
‘Siri?’ Regulus asked, as Sirius started to slip back off to sleep.  
  
‘Mm,’ Sirius hummed again.  
  
‘Will you always protect me? Will you always be my big brother?’ Regulus wasn’t sure what to do without Sirius. Although he loved his mother and father, they failed in comparison to his big brother who gave off such a warm, loving aura. Their life around the house would be so dull without Sirius and for some reason that terrified Regulus. There weren’t very many happy things in their life and whenever they found someone entertaining or happy, their mother always took it away.  
  
‘Of course I will, Reg. Don’t be silly.’ Sirius reached out, slotting one arm under Regulus and pulling the other over him and drawing the smaller boy into his body. He hugged his baby brother as tightly as he could, and in the embrace, the winter chill was almost forgotten.   
  
Sirius drifted back to sleep and Regulus just enjoyed being in his brother's company for a while. He hummed and looked around the room, keeping still and quiet like he had always been told he should be. When he heard the floorboards creak outside Sirius’s door with someone heavier than a house elf, he tried to wake his brother back up.  
  
‘Siri. Siri, I think mother’s awake. Siri, it’s time to wake up. You don’t want her to yell.’ Regulus shook his brother very softly.  
  
‘Not now, Reg. I was having a dream about Bella’s hair catching on fire.’ Sirius chuckled to himself. Regulus just shook his head at his brother’s devious thought pattern.  
  
‘There’s a reason Bell doesn’t like you, Siri.’ Regulus explained, trying not to smile. He knew his brother did a lot of bad things. But he couldn’t help but enjoy the laughter it brought. The laughter was the good part. It was the yelling that Regulus didn’t like.  
  
‘Sirius! Regulus!’ A shrilling voice pierced the quiet halls and Regulus shot up, out of his brother’s arms.  
  
‘Coming!’ Regulus called out instantly.  
  
‘Immediately!’ Their mother’s voice made Regulus shiver. Regulus turned to look at Sirius, who was still battling to go back to sleep and watch their cousin running around with her head dancing in flames.   
  
‘Come  _on_ , Siri!’ Regulus pulled at his brother. Sirius eventually got up, grumpily, and located his matching black dressing gown to pull over his silver, silk pyjamas, just the same as Regulus. They were always matching and always smartly dressed. Regulus tried his best to hurry him, but Sirius had always been terrible at following orders.  _Especially_  in the mornings.   
  
The brothers hurried down the first flight of stairs, then the second, passing the drawing room and followed each other down the hall and over to the thin flight of stairs to the lowest level, entering the kitchen. Their mother stood in there, a picture of beauty despite it not yet being ten o’clock.   
  
‘What took you so  _long_?’ She snapped at them, eyeing off the sleepy looking Sirius. Regulus elbowed him to stand up straighter.   
  
‘We were picking you flowers, mother.’ Sirius spoke, smiling at their mother in a shrewd sort of way. Regulus immediately frowned knowing what would come from this.  
  
Walburga stepped forward, allowing her gown to fall open and struck Sirius across the face. No one spoke after that. Walburga collected up the fronts of her robes in her hands again, looking down her nose at her eldest son. Kreacher worked away in the background, getting breakfast together for them. There was a ringing of silence until their mother spoke again.  
  
‘You will learn not to be smart, boy. There is no place for a smart-alec in the house of Black. Am I understood?’  
  
‘Yes, mother.’ Both boys spoke in unison. Regulus kept his head down, but his eyes darted in Sirius’s direction. There was already a red mark forming on his cheek.   
  
‘Sirius, you will take Regulus up stairs and continue with your piano practice. Your teacher will be over at noon. I want you both to play for most of the day tomorrow. I can’t have the family around, thinking all you two do is run around this house playing with sticks.’  
  
‘Yes, mother.’ Both boys replied again, in unison.  
  
Walburga continued on, relaying their day of duties. Calligraphy practice, piano lessons, their tutors for English and Maths would be around, even on Christmas Eve. After each demand, the boys replied in the same way. Walburga paced the kitchen with perfect posture, looking down her nose at them. It was a normal enough morning. As she turned her back to them, checking that Kreacher wasn’t burning their breakfast, Sirius turned to Regulus and made silly faces at their mothers back.  
  
Regulus tried not to laugh, but a small giggle managed to escape. Their mother turned on her heel and stared at them. Thankfully the boys had managed to straighten themselves up just in time. Kreacher’s mother entered the kitchen slowly, muttering all the way and joined her son, to make the family their morning tea.  
  
It was just as they were being excused from their mother’s presence that a loud noise came from behind her, of a silver tray clattering to the floor below and the contents of the tray smashing on the floor. Both Sirius and Regulus froze seeing who had dropped the tray.  
  
‘We’ll clean it up, mother! We’ll help her!’ Sirius shouted, making a move towards where Kreacher was already bent down, trying to help his mother with her mistake.  
  
‘No!’ Walburga snapped, grabbing a hold of Sirius and tossing him back towards Regulus, ‘you are the  _heir_  of the house of Black, Sirius. You will  _never_  help with breakfast preparations, am I  _clear_?’  
  
Regulus felt himself begin to shiver. He knew what this meant. There wasn’t a line of house elf heads along their staircase for no reason.   
  
‘Yes,  _mother_.’ Sirius spat through clenched teeth. The boys watched on as Walburga grabbed a hold of the tiny house-elves make-shift clothing and pulled her to her feet. Regulus watched on as helplessly as Kreacher, but suddenly a hand closed around his wrist and dragged him away, back up the narrow staircase and onto the ground floor, down the hall, up the first set of stairs passed the mounted, shrunken heads and back into the drawing room.  
  
‘She’s not going to kill her, is she Siri? She can’t  _kill_  her? Surely clothes will be enough?’ Regulus pleaded, not enjoying the thought of how the heads were mounted on the walls of their home.  
  
‘Come on, Reg. Up you climb. We have to be able to play more than lullabies before tomorrow and you still struggle with twinkle, twinkle.’ Sirius ushered him in further and offered him a hand, getting up onto the seat of the piano.   
  
‘But, Siri-’  
  
‘If you play really well, I’ll lose our English tutor this afternoon and we can find our sticks and play duelling again?’ Sirius smiled at him, climbing up on the seat beside him. The idea of being able to run around, pretending to hex one another like they had a few weeks ago was a nice incentive.   
  
‘Okay.’ Regulus nodded, turning to the piano keys. He raised a hand out, about to press down when there was a cracking noise downstairs, followed by Kreacher’s high-pitched squeak. Regulus froze, knowing what that meant. His little bottom jaw began to chatter against his top, and Sirius’s arm closed in around him, pulling him in close.  
  
‘How about I play first?’ He whispered, reaching his spare hand forward and playing the beginning keys of a song Regulus hadn’t heard him play before. Sirius had always been much better at the piano than he was. Regulus felt tears forming in his eyes and that’s when Sirius stopped playing and drew him closer into a hug with both arms and kissed the top of his head.   
  
Regulus couldn’t lose his big brother. Sirius was all he had. Holiday’s would be unbearable without him, let alone everyday living.  
  
 _August,_ 1971  
  
‘Kreacher!’ Sirius shouted out, laying front down on the rug in the drawing room close to where Regulus was taking up a spot on the lounge.  
  
‘Yes, Master Sirius?’ Kreacher appeared between the boys, almost silently, wearing his mangy, tattered pillowcase and looking less than impressed with his summoning.  
  
‘Can you make us dinner soon?’ Sirius requested, not looking up at the elf from his book on the floor.  
  
‘Of course, Master Sirius. Will there be anything else, Master Sirius?’ Kreacher drawled, keeping his little hands behind his back. Regulus watched the exchange from behind his own book as the fire crackled beyond them.  
  
‘No. If there was, wouldn’t I have  _asked_?’ Sirius shook his head at the floor in annoyance at their house elves words.   
  
‘You don’t have to be rude to him, Sirius.’ Regulus spoke softly, looking back to his book, as if avoiding eye contact with the recipients of his words would keep the attention off of him.  
  
‘Well, he doesn’t seem to respond to any other type of requests.’ Sirius sat up and Kreacher took a few steps away from him, ‘what are you still doing here? Honestly…’  
  
‘That will be all Kreacher, thank you.’ Regulus finalized, shutting his book and sitting up properly in the lounge.  
  
‘Yes, of course, young Masters.’ Kreacher gave Regulus a little bow of the head, before vanishing.  
  
‘So?’ Sirius looked over at Regulus with a great smile on his face. He was still nursing a small wound to his lip, an almost healed split, from where he had back chatted their father two weeks ago. But the punishments he received never seemed to discourage his rebellions. Regulus expected that was what he was currently getting at.  
  
‘So, what?’ Regulus played dumb, placing their history book aside as Sirius got to his feet.  
  
‘So what are the Black Brothers’ getting into tonight? A whole night alone, Reg. We can do whatever we want. Do you want to try and go outside? Have a walk around with the muggles?’ Sirius looked thoroughly entertained. Regulus sighed.  
  
‘Sirius, mother gave us homework.’ Regulus tried to reason with him. He didn’t enjoy watching his brother being punished so frequently.  
  
‘Screw the homework. I have a month left before I go to Hogwarts. I’ll have homework coming out my eyeballs when I get there. I want to have some  _fun_.’ Sirius grabbed a hold of Regulus’s shoulders, giving him a slight shake, confirming his excitement.   
  
Their mother and father were headed to a benefit tonight, to honour the Black family name for their contributions to some ministry department or library or something, neither of them were ever quite sure. It wasn’t very often that they were left alone without a tutor or a nanny to watch over them. But apparently at the ages of ten and eleven, Kreacher was enough of a caretaker now.   
  
‘Mother will find out. You’ll get into trouble, Sirius.’ Regulus tried to reiterate, but it was never much use. From before Regulus could even remember, he had always tried to keep his big brother out of some kind of trouble. But Sirius was like a snapped wand. He refused to be controlled and left a trail of destruction in his path.  
  
‘Mother can take-’  
  
‘Sirius! Regulus!’ Their mother’s voice penetrated the drawing room and Regulus launched up out of his seat and both the boys stood side by side as the door slammed open and their mother strode in. She looked stunning, in robes of purple and black. Not far behind her was their father dressed just as impeccably. His presence even forced Sirius into a perfected posture.  
  
‘You two are to be on your  _best_  behaviour tonight, am I understood?’ Walburga spoke as she approached the young boys. Orion stood by the door, clearly uninterested in the boring conversation. Regulus nodded his agreeance with his mother’s words, but Sirius kept his eyes on their father.  
  
‘I’m trusting the two of you alone. Do  _not_  disappoint me. I expect you remember what happens when you disappoint your father and I?’ Walburga continued. Regulus nodded again, but Sirius was still surveying their father, ‘Sirius! Are you listening?’ Walburga bent down before Sirius, clutching his jaw and bringing his eyes to focus on her.  
  
‘Yes, mother.’ Regulus watched Sirius reply out the corner of his eye. It was like a constant battle in their house. Sirius against Walburga. Sirius against Orion. Sirius against anyone with a pulse. That battle always ended in- Regulus flinched as Walburga struck Sirius, then straightened up and smoothed out her robes. This caught the attention of their father.  
  
He walked in further towards them, his shoes connecting loudly with the wooden floor beneath them. Neither of the boys had ever spent much time with their father. Orion was a very busy man and worked more than any man should. He wasn’t involved with the ministry. He ran his own business of specialized charms for security against muggles. He was extraordinarily good at that kind of magic and wizards paid big money when it came to security. Orion was only ever home on Sunday. And Sunday was always Regulus and Sirius’s least favourite day of the week.   
  
‘You will  _obey_  your mother, boy. Do not test me.’ Orion’s voice was firm, low and commanding. Sirius wasn’t stupid enough to disobey him for a second time in a month. Regulus heard him swallow as Orion drew up to his full height before him.  
  
‘Yes, Sir.’ Sirius complied.  
  
‘Regulus, I want you practising more. You’re not nearly good enough.’ Walburga pointed to the piano, ‘And Sirius, I want your essay for Mr. Nott completed  _tonight_. No funny business.’ Walburga demanded, striding from the room.  
  
‘You heard your mother,’ Orion fixed his gaze on Sirius alone, ‘Get to it. No sons of mine will be illiterate or unpractised.’ Orion finished, following off to where Walburga had left the room. Once they were both gone, Sirius immediately left his position and sat down at the piano.  
  
He began to play a beautiful tune, as Regulus joined him and they listened for the shutting of the front door to signal their parents’ departure. Once the door was slammed shut and the walls shook for the briefest of seconds, Sirius froze.  
  
‘You shouldn’t do that. They’ll figure out I’m still rubbish at playing at some point.’ Regulus said as Sirius stopped playing.  
  
‘Doesn’t have to be tonight.’ Sirius shrugged, ‘anyway. They’re gone. Kreacher is on dish duty. Come on, let’s make the most of this!’ Nothing seemed to damper Sirius’s mood. Or his lust for trouble, at the very least. A lump formed in Regulus’s throat at the expression of excitement painting his big brother’s face.   
  
‘Sirius,’ Regulus attempted.  
  
‘We can go out. We can have a walk around London. We could play tricks on Kreacher. We could get our brooms! We could-’  
  
‘Sirius!’ Regulus had the makings of tears in his eyes. He was terrified. Terrified of what would happen if they really got up to all the things Sirius was listing off. Terrified of the ramification their parents would rain down on them. When Sirius stopped long enough to look down at his little brother, he realised how scared he was.  
  
‘What’s wrong?’ Sirius asked, draping an arm over his shoulders.  
  
‘Please, I don’t want to go out. I don’t want to leave the house. They’ve trusted us to be alone. You’ll just- you’re going to get in trouble  _again_. I can’t- I can’t watch them hit you,  _again_!’ Regulus admitted as a couple of the tears cascaded down his face, ‘I just want to stay here. I just want to enjoy being here with you. I want to do our homework. I want you to help me with the piano. I want to finish our essays. I just want to do what we were  _told_.’ Regulus pleaded.   
  
Sirius didn’t look overly thrilled, but he reached out and wiped the tears running down his brother's cheeks. Then he gave him a smile, ‘alright. We’ll be good little Blacks. But- only if we can draw moustaches on all the portraits on our dinner break?’  
  
Regulus snorted out a snotty laugh and curled an arm around Sirius’s waist, hugging his brother tight.  
  
‘I don’t want you to leave, Siri.’ Regulus admitted. He’d known it was coming for a long time now. Sirius was going off to school in just a month’s time, and Regulus would be left all alone. He felt Sirius wrap his arms around him and rub his hands over his back.  
  
‘I’ll be back, Reg. I’m not gone for good.’  
  
‘But what am I supposed to do here without you? Who will protect me when I play the wrong keys? Who will protect me when Father is angry on a Sunday, trampling around the house?’ Regulus drew back, looking up into his brother's eyes.  
  
Sirius looked pained, ‘it’s only for a year. Think of it that way. Just one year, and then you’ll be there with me. We’ll be together after that. I’ll help you with your homework and there will be no Mother or Father breathing down our backs. You don’t have to worry about that year, either. With me gone, Mother won’t have anything to complain about. They like you.’  
  
‘They’d like you more if you just listened to them, Siri.’ Regulus gave him the best stern look a ten-year-old boy with tears in his eyes could muster.  
  
Sirius laughed, ‘Don’t worry, Reg. Just one year, then we’ll be together again, just like this. And I’ll protect you, I always will. I promise you. Forever.’ Sirius smiled and it eased Regulus’s irrational fear. Regulus loved his mother and father. He knew they’d never  _truly_  hurt him. Sure, they disciplined both of their sons. But only when they acted out and deserved it. Regulus was aware of how to escape most of their punishments. Sirius just provoked them.   
  
‘Sirius?’ Regulus stared back at his big brother, with devotion and love. Sirius hummed a reply, ‘We’ll always be brothers, right?’ He asked, always finding comfort in Sirius’s answer to this question.  
  
Sirius snorted, ‘Of course, Reg. Don’t be silly.’ He replied, pulling him forward and messing up his hair, ‘now, let’s get Fur Elise perfected tonight, shall we?’ Sirius said, guiding Regulus’s hands to the keys of the piano, once again coming to his baby brother’s aid and making sure to protect him from their mother’s irrational tirades.  
  
 _July_ , 1975  
  
As the years had fallen away, Regulus and Sirius had grown further and further apart. Once Sirius had come home, supporting the title of Gryffindor House, his mother had hit the roof. Sirius was a disgrace. Sirius had dishonoured their family. Sirius was a mar on their perfect record. The offhanded venomous remarks never stopped. It was draining to Regulus just as much as it was to Sirius. Because Regulus could never stop loving his brother.  
  
A year spent with only his parents had brought Regulus somewhat closer to them. A year without his brother, who had forgotten to return home for the breaks, had scarred him.   
  
In that first summer together when Sirius had returned home, at first the boys were distant. Even though they shared a profound bond, built though withstanding the house of Black together, Regulus felt betrayed. But of course, it didn’t take long before he had warmed back up to his favourite blood relative and dismissed the fact that they had spent so much time apart. That first summer, the boys had fallen back into their old ways. Back to being best friends. Back to being brothers.  
  
When they headed back to school together once that first summer was over, Regulus refused to share a compartment with Sirius and his Gryffindor friends on the train ride to Scotland. He was petrified his mother would find out and treat him the same way she treated Sirius. Which was one hundred times worse than before he had been placed in Gryffindor. It was torturous to watch. Their father took any opportunity to put Sirius down. Regulus couldn’t suffer the same fate. He was never as strong as Sirius. He wouldn’t have lasted.   
  
When he was sitting on that old stool, in front of the whole school, again Regulus was scared out of his wits. The sorting hat spoke to him. Told him he was a strange case. The old hat told him he was Slytherin material, but then he mentioned Gryffindor. He told him he could be with his brother if that was what he wanted. That’s when Regulus cried out in his head and pleaded with the sorting hat.  _Please, no. Please, please place me in Slytherin. It’s where I belong. I belong where my family is._  It felt like it took forever for the hat to decide. But when he called out Slytherin, Regulus looked down the table and saw the crestfallen look on Sirius’s face. He was so  _torn_.  
  
That was where their closeness started to fail. In the beginning, Regulus and Sirius still spoke in the hallways. They still shared a few moments together throughout the school year. But more and more, his Slytherin friends made fun of him for it. They teased him for his blood traitor brother and it got to Regulus more than he let on. Not the teasing. That he could handle. But the way they made fun Sirius. The derogatory remarks they made about him. Regulus hated that. So their conversations became further and further in between. Instead, Regulus watched his big brother from afar.   
  
As the summers spent at home fell by, Regulus and Sirius’s closeness did too. Regulus still cherished his big brother. But it became harder and harder to watch him being abused by their parents and so Regulus began hiding away in his bedroom. Sirius started to leave and visit his friends. This made his relationship with their parents worse and worse. Eventually, Sirius was barely home at all. Regulus spent most of his time with Kreacher, talking to the house elf as he cleaned and Regulus read the paper or did his homework.   
  
It was summer again and now Regulus was fifteen and Sirius was sixteen. The shouting and arguments were getting to the point of unbearable. Striking Sirius didn’t seem to be working for his parents anymore and horrifically they had taken to magical resources to punish him for any kind of acting out. More than once Sirius had things seared into his skin. Most recently, he had been subjected to an unforgivable curse at the hands of their father. Regulus had never heard Sirius cry out in pain from any of their parent’s punishments, not even when they burnt things into his flesh. But that night, that night Sirius  _screamed_.  
  
Regulus felt that there was a war raging inside of his head. He was so conflicted. He couldn’t stand to see his brother tormented anymore. He wanted to save him like Sirius had done for him so many times in the past. But he couldn’t defy his parents. He loved his parents, too. He knew that if Sirius was just less challenging towards their authority, they wouldn’t inflict so much pain onto him. He was so  _torn_.   
  
Regulus was up in his room, trying to figure out what to do. How he could keep his parents happy and help Sirius, too. He was scanning over a copy of the  _Daily Prophet_  when he caught a glimpse of the article on the war.   
  
 _-The Dark Lord believes that muggles should be beneath us. And right he is, really. Why should we hide away from them, when we’re clearly superior? I’ve never much understood the need for secrecy! The Dark Lord’s side is the right one. We wizards deserve more than cowering in the shadows of non-magic folk._  
  
It was just a quote from a civilian in an article on why some of the wizarding community was choosing to stand behind Voldemort. It struck a chord with Regulus. It made a lot of sense. As he read on a few sentences stood out to him.  _The Dark Lord seems to be gaining followers. The Dark Lord has a growing arsenal. The Dark Lord is offering his followers protection._ Regulus tore the article out of the newspaper and put the clipping on the side of his bed when there was a knock at the door.   
  
‘Come in,’ Regulus spoke, sitting up on his bed and bringing his feet to hang over the edge.  
  
‘Master Regulus, your mother is requesting you downstairs.’ Kreacher entered, bowing lowly before gathering himself back up.   
  
‘Thank you, Kreacher. I’ll be down shortly.’ He replied and the tiny house elf smiled back to him and turned to leave the room. Kreacher was becoming a large comfort of Regulus’s home life. Since Sirius and his parents brought so much anger and unnecessary rage, Regulus took solace in the fact that Kreacher was neutral to it. He didn’t want to admit it, but sometimes he would request the elf to come up and dust his room, simply so he would have someone to talk to. Or not talk to, but have a presence close by that wasn’t hell bent on arguing.  
  
When Regulus made it down the stairs and joined his mother and father at the dinner table, there was already an argument brewing.  
  
‘Why isn’t he down here? What is he doing Kreacher? I told you to fetch them  _both_.’ Walburga spat at the elf as he loaded the table up with platters of food.   
  
‘Yes, Mistress. Master Sirius said he was busy, Mistress. That he would be down when he could spare the time.’ Kreacher explained.  
  
‘Did he now?’ Walburga straightened up in her chair, looking over at her husband.  
  
‘Kreacher rephrased it for his Mistress, but yes, in fewer words.’ Kreacher continued, placing the Black family china down before Regulus first and moving on towards Orion and Walburga.  
  
Regulus tried to focus on his breathing. Deep. In and out. He tried to ignore the foul names being slung around about his brother, from his mother. She was muttered to his father and Orion was nodding away. Regulus hated it. It was horrible. He knew his mother and father weren’t always like this. They were strict, but they weren’t like  _this_. The house was much less tense when Sirius wasn’t around. Regulus  _hated_  that.   
  
‘Sirius! SIRIUS!’ His mother screeched out, ‘Get down here this  _instant_!’   
  
As the shouting continued and the arguments swelled, Regulus lost himself in his own mind. He thought of the article. He thought of protection. Perhaps joining Voldemort’s side wasn’t as bad as everyone was making it out to be? Maybe there would be where Regulus would find the protection he always so desperately sought out? Maybe that way he could make his parents happy and they would stop hurting his brother. Would that work? Would that protect his parents and in turn his brother?   
  
By the time Regulus tuned back into the dinner conversation, Sirius had come downstairs and joined them. Regulus watched him as he yanked out a chair and took a seat with them, sporting a Gryffindor jumper. This wasn’t going to be good.  
  
‘You dirty little  _blood traitor_! How  _dare_ you wear that in this house! Do you know who your ancestors  _are_?’ Walburga stood from her chair and pointed a finger over at where Sirius sat, lazily gazing back at her.  
  
‘I’m pretty sure they were all rich old tossers. Yeah.’ Sirius challenged and Regulus felt his heart rate increase and a knot form in his throat.   
  
‘You will not disrespect the house of Black in my presence, Sirius!’ Orion stood, smashing a hand down on the table, ‘do I need to teach you another lesson?’   
  
Regulus saw the fear that was written on his brother’s face from that statement. Sirius, who was usually so nonchalant. Sirius, who was never one for emotions. Sirius, who didn’t let forth a squeak when being struck. He was  _scared_. Regulus hated this. He bit down on his lip so hard he was sure he could taste the metallic flavour of his own blood.   
  
They were all screaming now. Sirius was screaming about how stupid their morals were. How the house of Black deserved to burn to the ground. Orion was screaming about honour. Walburga had taken to collecting up anything she could get her hands on to fling at Sirius. Plates were shattering and Regulus suddenly found himself upstairs, back in his bedroom.  
  
‘Is Master Regulus okay?’ Kreacher looked up at him, clearly quite frightened.   
  
‘Yes, thank you.’ Regulus knelt down placing a hand on the little elf’s shoulder. He had apparated him back upstairs to keep him safe from the renegade flying china. That’s when Regulus heard the sound of heavy footfalls, rushing up the stairs.  
  
‘Fuck this! I’m fucking done with all of you!’ Sirius screamed, smashing his door open. Regulus walked to the doorway of his bedroom and looked out to see what was going on. When he walked down the hall, he could see Sirius inside of his room grabbing anything he could carry and tossing it into his trunk.   
  
‘I hate this fucking house!’ Sirius screamed at no one in particular. Once he seemed to be done gathering his things, he slammed his trunk shut and dragged it behind him until he came face to face with Regulus.  
  
‘You’re leaving then?’ Regulus asked, knowing it was blindingly obvious what was unfolding before him.   
  
‘Reg,’ Sirius scanned over him and dropped his trunk to settle his hands down on each of Regulus’s shoulders, ‘come with me, Reg. We can get out of this hell-hole.’ Sirius had a bruise forming under his eye and blood blooming on a split in his lip.   
  
Regulus felt himself frowning against his will, ‘I can’t leave, Sirius. I can’t leave them.’  
  
‘This isn’t what life is supposed to  _be like_ , Reg. You’re not supposed to feel like this. Come with me. I’ll look after you.’  
  
For a short moment, Regulus considered it. Maybe Sirius was right? Maybe this wasn’t what life was? But if he left with Sirius, he would be dead to his mother and father. And he just couldn’t accept that. As cruel as they could be, they were still his parents. He still loved them. And what would he do with Sirius? Become a blood traitor and hang around with mudbloods? It wasn’t right. He couldn’t lower himself to a life like that.  
  
‘I can’t.’ Regulus shook his head. Sirius looked pained by his decision. Regulus reached up and brushed his brother hands off of his shoulders.   
  
‘I have to go, Reg. I can’t stay here.’ Sirius spoke, wiping his lip up with his sleeve.  
  
‘I know.’ Regulus nodded. Sirius stared at him for as long as he could, before their mother’s piercing voice got louder signalling she was making the move upstairs. Sirius looked away and turned towards the stairs, gathering up his trunk.  
  
‘Siri!’ Regulus called out and Sirius turned to look at him, having gone down only two steps, ‘but we’ll always be brothers, right?’ Regulus almost found it hard to choke those words out.   
  
Sirius smiled back at him, bruised and battered, ‘yeah, of course, Reg. Don’t be silly.’ The brother’s exchanged one last fleeting look at each other as Walburga made it to the topmost staircase.  
  
Sirius barged passed her, dragging his trunk behind him. Regulus listened on as his parents threatened to disown their son. Orion was screaming on the first floor landing that Sirius would be nothing to them if he left their home. Regulus couldn’t listen to the rest and retreated to his bedroom.   
  
This meant that Sirius was truly an outsider of their home now. And if Regulus wanted to keep his parents happy, he would have to follow their lead. He couldn’t talk to his brother anymore. He couldn’t associate with him, not if he wanted to keep his parents love for him intact. And his parents  _did_  love him.   
  
He would just have to focus on making them happy, now that Sirius’s relationship with them was beyond repair.  
  
But he couldn’t  _lose_  Sirius. He still loved his big brother, who taught him almost everything he knew. He loved his brother and he was torn now knowing he would have to act as if he didn’t. He would just have to find some other way to look after him. To make sure he was okay, without their parents finding out he was. Just like Sirius used to do for him.


	65. The polite smile

Ali stood on the platform, ready to return to her final year of school. Everything was the same as it had been the last time she boarded the Hogwarts Express. But instead of her mother holding onto her little brother, Sirius Black was in Kanika’s place, standing beside her father. Ali also had a Head Girl’s badge held tightly in her hand, ready to pin on once she changed into her robes, in place of the prefect one she had sported for the previous two years.  
  
She laughed a little as Tucker, who was balancing on Sirius’s hip, continued to fuss over the older boy’s hair. Christian was watching on, pretending not to be as amused as he was by the sight.  
  
‘Tucker, you can stop that.’ Sirius was frowning, but he seemed to have accepted the fact that Tucker was very unlikely to stop.  
  
‘You have it all wrong, you mess of a wizard.’ Tucker was shaking his little head and trying to part Sirius’s hair the  _correct_  way. His words. Sirius was just staring blankly ahead, in resignation. Tucker had spent so much time grooming Sirius over the holidays it appeared Sirius had just adjusted to life with Tucker attached to him. Ali had spent most of that time laughing at his misfortune of becoming the new Snowball.   
  
Suddenly, Sirius’s eyes snapped open and he, strangely enough, corrected his posture. The small jostle in his stance halted Tucker momentarily and Ali turned around to see what had caught Sirius’s attention.   
  
Further up from them, Ali noticed Regulus Black. He was dressed smartly, in black dress robes. He looked disinterested in what was going on in front of him. There was a woman straightening the collar on his jacket and talking at him. Ali recognised this woman. She had been doing a similar thing the last time Ali had noticed her. It was most definitely Regulus and Sirius’s mother.   
  
Ali had only heard small snippets about Walburga Black since the night Sirius had gone into detail about his horrible upbringing. They were far and in-between and usually when Sirius was tired, or recalling a bad memory. But every time he let himself slip and mentioned her, not so much by name, but by some form of evoked abuse, Ali’s distain for the woman only grew.  
  
As she watched the exchange between mother and son, she saw as Regulus’s eyes started to roam. He looked unabashedly bored at what his mother was saying. That’s when he scanned the crowd and suddenly his eyes locked onto her. Or at least, she thought it was her. After a few moments, she realised he was staring straight through her. Ali turned to look behind her and Sirius was looking beyond her, too. Tucker was talking again, fiddling with Sirius’s hair. But Sirius wasn’t paying any attention to it.  
  
As Ali looked back and forth between the brothers, it was like nothing was going on around them, just for the briefest of moments. It wasn’t until Sirius cleared his throat and looked away that the odd occurrence ceased. When she looked back, Regulus was boarding the train with Barty Crouch and Rabastan Lestrange in tow. That’s when Ali froze, seeing Walburga heading their way. She turned to see how Sirius was going to react to this, but for the time being he was preoccupied with Tucker. It wasn’t until the classy looking woman was inches away from them that Sirius seemed to register her.  
  
There was a loud snort of disapproval that gained all of their attention, ‘Blood traitors and filth.’ Were the only words uttered from her mouth as she passed them by, with a tiny house elf not far behind. As she went, she kept her chin held high and the sound of her shoes clacked loudly against the stone flooring below. Ali watched as the little elf struggled with her bag and an assortment of other things. The situation didn’t last more than a few seconds, but as soon as Walburga was out of earshot Ali let go of the breath she was holding and looked back to Sirius.  
  
‘She was pretty.’ Tucker stated. The innocence of a child was unparalleled.  
  
‘Yeah,’ Christian agreed, but unconvincingly so, ‘but she’s also very ugly on the  _inside_.’ He finished as the people bustled around them, making their way onto the train as it ticked closer to the departure time. Then he shifted Tucker from Sirius’s arms to his own as Sirius and Ali both stared at Christian, waiting for an explanation.  
  
‘Oh, I knew your mother.’ Christian nodded with a very real look of disgust, ‘I knew her  _very_  well.’ And with that, he moved towards Ali, ‘I’ll let you two say your goodbyes, we’ll wait for you just outside the platform, Sirius. Have a good term, Ali-bear. Write to us lots.’ He leant in and kissed Ali on the forehead and lingered to allow Tucker to kiss her on the cheek. Tucker hugged his arms around her neck, ending his little kiss by blowing a raspberry in her face and giggling.  
  
‘Tell me about all the people you catch snogging! And snog heaps of people!’ Tucker exclaimed, giggling even more so as Christian pulled him back.  
  
‘Tucker!’ Ali reprimanded, ‘I’m not going to snog anyone. I go to school to learn.’  
  
‘And to hand out detentions and snog boys. That’s what James told me you do there.’ Tucker was smiling like he had just won a prize. It was because Christian seemed to find a fair amount of humour in his son’s words. The grown man and father of two, was silently laughing over Tucker’s calls and it was only egging Tucker on.  
  
Thankfully, in the months they had spent together over the summer, Christian had warmed up to Sirius exponentially. In fact, they seemed to have some sort of bond forming. They had become lads. Partners in crime. Now all three of them ganged up on Ali and had done so on multiple occasions at dinners or on lazy days around the house. They partook in pranks on her, or simply annoyed her with banter and while it was amusing to talk about later on, Ali was pretty ready to return to school and have a small break from them all.   
  
‘I’ll wring his neck.’ Ali balled up her fist, picturing James’s stupid face and how she was going to repay him for filling her brother’s head with lies. Well, okay not  _lies_. But still, Tucker did  _not_  need to know about all the snogging that went on in her sixth year. Nor did her father for that matter!  
  
‘See you later, dear! Love you!’ Christian exclaimed, taking that as his cue to leave and making a beeline for the platform exit.  
  
‘Love you both!’ Ali called out to her father’s retreating form as he took Tucker and left Ali and Sirius alone.   
  
‘You better not snog anyone.’ Sirius said to her left and came in for a kiss. Once he drew back, Ali grinned at him.  
  
‘I’ll do my best to let all my suitors down easily.’ Ali teased while Sirius pulled her into his arms.   
  
‘You know, you’ve changed at lot since this time last year.’ They rested up against each other while people passed them by. Sirius drew little circles around the small of Ali’s back where his hands were lingering.  
  
‘How would you know? I wasn’t even on your radar this time last year.’  
  
‘Weren’t you?’ Sirius grinned, ‘Seeing as how it was my radar, I’m pretty sure you were definitely on it. I mean, do you really think I was so stupid as to let off a firecracker in a carriage  _full_  of students if I wasn’t positive you were making your way down the train on your patrol?’  
  
Ali’s jaw dropped open at the realization and Sirius’s snide smirk. She recalled the memory only too well, finding Sirius and Peter terrorizing an entire carriage full of students. The poor Slytherin’s had all complained to her for the remainder of the trip!  
  
‘How could you  _possibly_  have known I was on rounds? Your wacky map doesn’t cover the train.’ Ali couldn’t help the grin that was slyly creeping onto her face.  
  
‘Oh, Prongs and I have our own way of communication. That’s one secret I’m not giving up.’ He leant down and kissed her again, before she could argue about his reply.   
  
‘Exactly how many detentions did I give you that you  _wanted_  to get?’ Ali pushed Sirius back, frowning at him.   
  
‘See? Even that remark. Last year you’d definitely have been yelling at me.’ Sirius nodded, following Ali to one of the carriage entrances. The whistle blew signalling their limited time before departure and Ali jumped up onto the platform of the carriage and looked down at Sirius.  
  
‘I guess I’m a little hypocritical when it comes to the people I love.’ She bit her lip, as it was only the second time she had uttered the words in any kind of exchange between them. But Ali refused to leave another one of the people she cared about on this platform, without telling them exactly how she felt.  
  
Sirius looked stumped for a minute, but his expression transitioned quickly to one of worry as he opened his mouth to reply. Ali interrupted instantly, saving him an explanation of why he wasn’t ready to say the words back, ‘Please be careful with all the order missions! I’ll see you over the break!’ She held on to the bar at the side of the carriage entrance and gave him a last, fleeting kiss on the lips.  
  
‘Or sooner, even!’ Sirius replied, the worry melting away as the train kicked into gear and started moving.  
  
‘Sirius, don’t you  _dare_  sneak into the castle! I will report you to the headmaster!’ Ali pointed a warning finger at him.  
  
‘There’s my girl!’ He laughed, waving to her as the train moved along. They smiled back at one another until the train left the station, and the brickwork walls replaced Ali’s surroundings and Sirius’s face vanished from sight.   
  
Ali sighed. She made her way further into the carriage and there were students all around, chatting to one another. She felt odd. This had been how she spent more than three quarters of her Hogwarts existence. Alone. No real friends. But now that she knew what it was like having them, the school year seemed almost daunting.   
  
She opened her hand, looking down at the shiny scarlet badge reading Head Girl. At least she had a mission. She had to watch over Regulus Black. Try to find out what he and his friends were into. After the attack the previous year at Slughorn’s Christmas party, Dumbledore was trying to keep a close eye on those involved. And Ali was to watch them to the best of her ability. It was odd though, that Dumbledore had chosen Regulus rather than Barty Crouch. With those thoughts in her mind, she continued on down the train to where her father had put Snowball and her trunk in the prefect’s carriage.   
  
When she entered the carriage, it was loud with the chatter of all the other house prefects, catching up with one another. Ali quietly gathered up her uniform and changed in one of the toilets. Once she was out, she pinned the Head Girl badge to her chest and looked around for Regulus. He wasn’t among any of the students, so she made the move into the next carriage. Still nowhere to be seen.  
  
‘Honestly.’ She rolled her eyes, walking back through the second carriage and off down the train to check for the group of Slytherin’s he must still have been with. She made her way down the few larger open carriages, scanning the students and coming to the conclusion he must have found a private compartment to occupy.  
  
She looked through compartment after compartment. No luck. She was getting angrier and angrier the further down the train she got. She took to nibbling at her lip with frustration until she entered the very  _last_  carriage of private compartments and found three of the four Slytherin seventh year boys. Her frustration having grown to out of control proportions, she reached forward and slammed the door open and stood at the entrance.  
  
All three of the boys stared at her as if she had committed some vast atrocity against their ancestors at the interruption. Even Regulus.   
  
‘Can we  _help_ you?’ Crouch stared at her with one carefully raised eyebrow, giving her a quick once over with his eyes.  
  
‘Why the bloody hell aren’t you in the prefects carriage, Black?’ She snapped, ignoring Barty and his venomous expression.   
  
‘Oh, sorry. Was one Black not enough for you, today? Needed a bit more to keep you going?’ The other two members of the compartment burst out laughing at Regulus's words. Ali felt her face twitch involuntarily with the makings of a grimace.   
  
‘She’s had enough of the blood traitor, now she wants to move up the ranks.’ Rabastan managed to get out, before collapsing back into the laughter at his own joke. Barty made an almost inhuman noise he was laughing so hard, but when Ali settled her eyes back on Regulus, he wasn’t as amused as he had previously been.  
  
‘I suppose I should head off,’ Regulus stood, as the other two continued cackling, not noticing his words.  
  
Now on his feet he moved off towards Ali, and shut the compartment door behind him. He was careful not to make any kind of contact with her, Ali noticed. Once the door was shut and the laughter of the other two boys muffled, Regulus moved up off to the other end of the carriage without Ali being able to get a word in.  
  
‘Hey! Wait up! Would you mind explaining what that was about?’ Ali asked, rushing to keep up. She was attempting to keep civility between them. They were to be in close confines for the next year. It probably wouldn’t have been the greatest idea to kick it all off with a full-blown argument.  
  
‘What?’ Regulus snapped and Ali reached forward and pulled him to a halt to get a better look at his face.  
  
‘Excuse  _me_ , Regulus Black. I can  _not_  get a read on you, do you know that? I’m terrible at reading people as it is. But  _you_. You’re a  _mystery_.’ Ali explained, drinking in his sour expression. He looked more like Sirius than ever with the scowl adorning his face. It softened slightly from her words, ‘one minute you’re sitting by me, trying to “help” me. Your words. The next I don’t hear so much a peep out of you. Then, voila, there you are again, making jokes with me and getting all chummy. Now you’re making fun of me in front of your mates?  
  
                ‘What’s that for?’ Ali searched his features for any kind of clue into why he was acting the way he had been. Regulus was looking at the floor, his anger having completely dried up. He raised his head to look at her and his expression stumped Ali. Remorse was written all over his face.  
  
‘I’m sorry… for what I said. That was rude of me and… I’m sorry.’ He offered, scratching the back of his neck where his well-kept, short hair ended. Ali pulled up short, once she processed his words.  
  
She blinked, ‘Uh. A-apology accepted. I guess?’ She looked back at the boy before her and he looked like a chastised child. He was so up and down she decided not to question it. Maybe this is what Dumbledore had meant by keeping an eye on him? ‘I can’t say I’m not used to it by now. Shall we?’ She gestured ahead of them to continue on down the train.  
  
‘Yeah.’ Regulus agreed and they fell into step beside one another.  
  
‘What happened to Rowle? Wasn’t he usually a part of your little clan?’ Ali queried, wondering why the fourth member of the Slytherin seventh years wasn’t in their compartment with them as per usual.   
  
Regulus sighed as they made it through another carriage of private compartments, ‘I suppose he didn’t make the cut this year. He lacked reform.’ Something about the way he spoke gave Ali the impression he wasn’t fully on board with this decision. But she wasn’t entirely sure.  
  
‘Uh. How about you?’ Regulus gave her a sideways glance as they manoeuvred by two Ravenclaw girls, ‘how was your… holidays?’ Something seemed off about the way he had worded his questions. It was times like these that Ali wished she was better at picking up signals.  
  
‘Fine. A little odd, I guess. Getting used to a house with only three members instead of four.’ Ali cleared her throat a little, trying to disguise the fact that she struggled with the last part of her sentence. She opened up the end carriage door and moved into the louder, open carriage ahead.  
  
‘Yeah. I get that…’ Regulus almost whispered, falling back into step with her. She realised he probably hadn’t intended on her hearing that, as when he continued, he spoke much louder, ‘uh. How about… uh… never mind. So, Head Girl? Congratulations.’ He nodded towards her badge.  
  
‘Oh, thanks. You, too. I guess I’m glad it was you over Cresswell or that moron Macmillan.’ Ali rolled her eyes thinking about the Hufflepuff prefect that had given her the third degree on her choice of boyfriend the year prior. The Ravenclaw prefect, Johnson, wasn’t so bad.  
  
Regulus let out a short, bemused breath as they reached almost the front of the train, ‘It’s funny. How did you know I got Head Boy? I haven’t told anyone but Barty and Stan yet.’ They came to a stop outside the prefect’s first carriage and Ali froze.  
  
‘Uh, I- um, I guessed.’  _Good thinking, Ali!_  ‘Yeah. I mean, none of the other prefects got it. So I sort of just narrowed it down to you?’ She looked back to the younger Black, biting her lip and gauging his reaction at her badly worded recovery. Regulus supplied her with a quizzical look and Ali panicked.  
  
‘Uh, your holidays!? How were they?’ Immediately at the mention of his holidays, Regulus drew in a breath moved his left hand behind his back.  
  
‘We should probably get inside.’ He gave her a polite smile, before reaching his right hand into his robes and pulling out the Head Boy badge. He fixed it to rest just over his heart before he opened up the door, ‘after you.’ He presented her with the same smile.   
  
It was common, she noted, that Regulus would smile, but never look happy. He had given her the same smile countless times over their years together. Mostly in passing, with never a work uttered, before they got to know each other. Then with polite conversation when they were first introduced. Now it seemed to be a polite way of ending their conversation and Ali allowed it, stepping in first as the carriage went quiet.  
  
‘What? You’ve moved on to the next Black now, have you?’ Was the sentence that greeted her. In the past, Ali would have actively ignored any banter directed at her. But more recently she was starting to get fed up with students and their immaturity and her irritability was much easier to elevate since losing her mother.  
  
‘Shut it, Macmillan. You’re not above a detention and I can take points off all of you now. So I’d watch your  _mouth_.’ She squared her eyes at the Hufflepuff prefect and he slouched down in his seat, avoiding her eye contact. She heard Regulus chuckle as he moved beside her and Ali almost forgot it was his brother standing by her side, not Sirius.  
  
‘Regulus Black and I will be your Head’s this year. So any and all qualms you’ll direct to one of us.’ Ali started, looking around the carriage. As she spoke out to the rest of the school’s superiors, Regulus stood beside her, not having too much input. She figured this would have been the case. Regulus had always been the quieter sort.   
  
She directed them of their first meeting and of which of the prefects would show the first years around after the sorting. She asked a few to undertake tonight’s rounds, so she would have time to set up a schedule for the rest of the week with Regulus later. By the time she had covered all the basics, it was getting on into the afternoon. Once her speech was over, a lot of the carriage dispersed and Ali took a seat getting a bit of parchment out to make a rough draft for rounds.   
  
‘Would you like a hand?’ Regulus asked, making Ali jump. She was sure he would have darted off to be with Crouch and Lestrange.  
  
‘Uh, sure.’ She gestured to the seat opposite her. He slid in easily and seemed quite content. Ali tried not to dwell on it and put her quill to the parchment, but as soon as she made the first line for the timetable, she broke into laughter.  
  
‘What? What’s so funny?’ Regulus was giving her a very confused look.   
  
‘My quill,’ Ali laughed harder, ‘it’s a glitter quill. It’s my little brother’s. It’s just reminded me of when we went down to the little creek by our house and Tucker drew all over Sirius’s face when he fell asleep in the sun.’ The memory was a particularly fond one of hers, because it had been Sirius at the receiving end of a prank, not her.  
  
Tucker had made a friend with the little redheaded brothers from down the road, Billy and Charlie, and the three of them had managed to practically coat Sirius’s face in glitter pen while he dozed. Their laughter had been one of the sweetest sounds. They were only bested by Sirius’s indigent cries when he woke up and realised why all the children had been cackling at him.   
  
‘He was completely covered in it,’ Ali couldn’t stop laughing, ‘he couldn’t get it off for two days!’ She dropped the quill and covered her mouth with her hand, trying to keep herself slightly composed.   
  
When she looked up however, she was silenced almost instantly. Regulus’s expression was one she had never seen before. He was staring down at the abandoned quill and his smile was so bright and carefree. He had never looked so handsome. The sudden halt to her outburst gained his attention quickly and when he noticed her attention on him, his smile faded back into the politely touched expression and he pulled the parchment towards him.   
  
‘Should we give Macmillan the most shifts this week, for his outburst?’ Regulus suggested in a cavalier tone.  
  
‘Well if we’re punishing people for outbursts, write yourself down for a few more than normal then.’ Ali added almost without thinking. The two of them stared at one another, before breaking into a relaxed laugh. They started drawing up the timetable without too much small talk. But Ali couldn’t get the image of Regulus smiling so freely out of her head. 


	66. James and Sirius take London

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: This chapter includes the lovely JK's prequel and the before and after events, how I perceive it went. I do not own any of JK's magic. If you guys haven't read the prequel, you can read it online!

Sirius sat across from James at the Potter dining table, laughing along as Mrs Potter explained a particularly heated retelling of one of her run in’s with a Gringotts goblin.   
  
‘And he tried to get me to open a second vault, saying there was too much in ours. And I just sat him down and gave him a right yelling to.’ Mrs Potter continued, as she served up dinner to the two boys, ‘I said, now listen here Ricbert, or whatever the bloody hell your name is. Do you mean to tell me that a  _magical_  facility, with the sole purpose of holding  _magical_  currency, cannot find a way to perhaps  _enlarge_  our vault?! Or are you just trying to get me to pay twice the amount of bi-annual fees!?’  
  
The idea of little Mrs Potter having a row with a goblin was too much for either of the boys to handle and Sirius smacked his fists down on the table, howling with laughter, while James snorted so hard he fell out of his chair.  
  
‘Oh, James. Do try and keep your backside in the seat.’  
  
‘What did he say? Was he scared out of his wits?’ Sirius enquired, lifting his head from the table and reaching for the potatoes.  
  
‘Well of course he was!’ Mrs Potter flashed him a grin, ‘you don’t piss off the main benefactors of your bank, Sirius. I can tell you now, our account is certainly among the tops of the tops of Gringotts. And Ricbert found himself otherwise  _reassigned_  after that whole ordeal.’   
  
Mrs Potter had the most satisfied look on her face. After her words, when James clawed his way back into his seat, he was once again thrown out of it from the ridiculous way he flailed his arms from his jolted laughter and struggles to take breaths of fresh air.  
  
‘James, honestly.’ Mrs Potter gave out a little chuckle at his show, but quickly turned on Sirius, ‘How’s Ali going at school, Sirius? I can’t believe you both managed to snag  _Head Girls_.’ Mrs Potter shook her head in wonderment, with a perfectly enthralled smile at  _both_ her son’s seemingly impeccable taste in women.   
  
‘She’s fighting everyone, no doubt. I can see it now. She can give the prefect’s detentions this year. She’ll be in heaven.’ Sirius barked out a short laugh, picturing Ali reprimanding an entire room full of students she’d pulled up for crimes against the school.  
  
‘I don’t know, mate. Since losing her mum, don’t you think she’s gotten a little more lax? Like, maybe she’s running around after hours getting into trouble with all those sexy seventh year boys Hogwarts has to offer?’ James resurfaced with a devilish grin.   
  
‘Shut up, James. Eat your potatoes, you git.’ Sirius glared at him, readying a spoon full of peas to fling in his direction.  
  
‘Boys!’ Mrs Potter chastised reaching out and stopping Sirius, ‘you’re both wrong. She’ll have her nose buried in one of those books she was reading over the summer, no doubt.’   
  
‘What books?’ Sirius resigned his loaded weapon back to his plate and James and Sirius both looked to Mrs Potter for an answer.  
  
She grinned, ‘one of those romance novels. Didn’t you notice what she was reading? Those books… well…’ Mrs Potter covered her mouth with a loosely closed fist as her mind wandered off to exactly the books she was thinking about. They were certainly of the  _adult_ context. She expected when she met Ali, that the reason she was reading them in front of everyone was because the boys never paid close attention to anything that wasn’t prank related. None of them would have noticed. Probably not even Remus. But Mrs Potter picked up on it right away.  
  
‘What? What’s she reading? Weren’t they textbooks?’ Sirius looked concerned.  
  
Mrs Potter just giggled, ‘eat your peas, Sirius. You both have a big night ahead of you.’  
  
The boys instantly forgot about Mrs Potter’s proclamation and ate the dinner she had made for them, while carrying on about whether or not Mrs Potter would have been more like James, or more like Sirius at school. Sirius was convinced Mrs Potter was a beauty at school and boys used to chase after her. So she was definitely like him. James was unconvinced and said no girls chased after him at school and he was just delusional. That his mother would have been an upstanding student having only just missed out on being Head Girl herself. Mrs Potter scoffed at that and told them she wasn’t anything close to prefect material and that they should hurry up and finish their vegetables before they were needed on Order patrol.  
  
‘Boys! Before you go. I’ve made you all something!’ Mrs Potter said as James and Sirius playfully slapped one another in the entrance hall, getting ready to disapparate. Mrs Potter hurried off up the stairs and Sirius lashed out, grabbing James in a head vice and pulling him down into the side of his body while James cried out pitifully.  
  
‘Okay! Okay, you win!’  
  
‘Say it.’ Sirius growled, glaring down at the back of James’s head.  
  
‘Alright! You’re the prettiest! You!’ James squealed.  
  
‘Say it with feeling, you dirty stag!’  
  
‘Sirius Black is the prettiest boy to ever live! The heavens look down upon his face for guidance through dark periods of history!’ James cried out, trying to shimmy backwards out of the head lock Sirius had him in.  
  
‘Wow,’ Sirius said, letting him free, ‘that was kind of poetic, Prongs. Thank you.’ Sirius touched a hand to his heart in mock adoration. Mrs Potter was already half way down the stairs, shaking her head at the both of them.   
  
‘I made these. Not just for you two. I have one for Peter and Remus, as well. I didn’t know how on board the girls would be for it, but if they like them I can make more.’ Mrs Potter had two scarlet coloured t-shirts in her hands. As she got to the bottom, she spread one out to show them the front. It had a golden phoenix emblazoned across the front.  
  
‘Mrs P! You’ve outdone yourself! I love it!’ Sirius launched forward grabbing one from her straight away. James wasn’t far behind, shoving him out of the way to get the remaining one.  
  
‘These are fantastic! I love it when we’re matching!’ James declared as Sirius ripped his black shirt over his head without any kind of shyness towards the notion of being half naked before James’s mother.   
  
‘Fits perfect!’ Sirius nodded his approval after pulling the shirt over his head.  
  
‘We look dashing.’ James agreed, after undressing and pulling his on, also.   
  
‘Oh I love them.’ Mrs Potter jostled happily on the last stair, where she looked over the boys with a weathered smile, crows-feet forming at her eyes and smile lines heavy on her cheeks.  
  
‘We love  _you_!’ Sirius grabbed a hold of the tiny little lady, hugging her tight as James joined in. Mrs Potter giggled away happily as she was tall enough to hug them both without reaching up, situated on the last step. Once James and Sirius had let her go, they started shoving each other and arguing over who looked better. Mrs Potter just sighed heavily, although it was nice having so much life around the house again.  
  
‘You boys be careful. I don’t want to hear any reckless stories about you two riding that  _bike_ again.’ Mrs Potter warned, pointing a finger at the two of them as they shoved each other making their way back to the middle of the little entrance hall.  
  
‘Yes, ma’am!’ James saluted.  
  
‘I actually got rid of the bike. It was a terrible example to set for kids. Death contraption, really. I mean, splinching is far less gruesome than bike crashes.’ Sirius nodded away making a show of what it would be like to turn up splinched, leaving half your body behind. James was laughing again. Mrs Potter sighed at them.  
  
‘Just  _go_.’ She rolled her eyes as Sirius joined James in laughter, then took a hold of his messy haired counterpart, disapparating them and leaving Mrs Potter with a wide grin on her old face.   
  
The boys’ apparated back in London, in Sirius’s flat. Sirius had his footing right away, but James stumbled. Without much furniture about the place and nothing for him to grab a hold of, he crumpled in a heap on the floor. Sirius just cackled at his misfortune and less than graceful footing while discarding his black shirt on the floor below.  
  
‘Not so quick on your feet, as you are on a broom, are you Prongs.’  
  
‘Ugh, Padfoot. How old are these?’ James asked, lifting up the pair of pants that had cushioned his landing.  
  
‘I don’t have all the answers, Prongs. Some things are better left  _unknown,_  in my opinion.’ With that, James promptly flung the pants out of his hand and they hit the dusty old vertical piano that sat up against the long wall overlooking the streets of London below.  
  
‘Mate, you need to get a decorator in or something. This place really is abysmal looking.’ James looked around. Sirius’s flat was quite big, and quite old, and  _very_  muggle. Its hard wood floors had long since been polished. Instead of shining and feeling as if you could slide over them in your socks, it felt more likely you’d get a splinter not wearing shoes on them. The flat was mostly one large open room. All the walls were bricked in various shades of reds and it was fitted with muggle lighting. The fixtures and wires could all be seen on the high ceilings overhead giving the empty flat an industrial, unfinished look. The wall opposite the front door was the one overlooking the streets below and was filled with large windows and opened out to a small, iron grated balcony.   
  
There was only very few pieces of furnishings around. There was a table with four chairs that James and Sirius had transfigured from an old broken setting they found out in a dumpster. They were both proud of that find. The flat had come with a few bits and pieces. The old piano, that Sirius hadn’t touched. A “fridge”, which Lily had explained was the muggle way of keeping food fresh. The fact that muggles couldn’t put cooling charms on things still baffled both James and Sirius, but Sirius had been delighted by it and kept it. The contents of the fridge, though, were about as exciting as the surrounding furniture. Other than that there was an old rug in what probably could have been a lounge room area of the large open room, but no such furniture had been purchased to set it up. Instead it sat taking up the right hand back corner of the place, just looked sad and desolate.  
  
‘We should get you a couch.’ James added, walking over to the area and mapping out in his head where they could put it.  
  
‘I’m never here. I don’t see the point.’ Sirius shrugged, making his way over to where the kitchen corner was and making his way up the little set of stairs that sat suspended over where the fridge was situated against the left wall.   
  
There wasn’t really an  _upstairs_  area. It was just a half level where Sirius’s bed was. The only furniture they  _had_  bought. There was a little ledge blocking off the bedroom from the eyes of those below, and over the bannister was, probably, every item of clothing Sirius owned. James knew for a fact that even with the only piece of furniture up there being a bed, the place was  _shockingly_ untidy. There was also a nicely sized bathroom up there that had a free standing bath tub with little silver feet keeping it off the floor. James and Sirius had named it Samson Von Tubbington.   
  
‘Alright, I’m ready.’ Sirius sounded, floating down the stairs in a fluid kind of rhythm. He had donned a black leather jacket over his shirt and grinned at James once he was on the lower level of the flat, standing before him.  
  
‘Is that a muggle jacket?’  
  
‘Saw it in a magazine. Thought it looked cool.’ Sirius shrugged.  
  
‘How are we supposed to fight Death Eaters when we’re  **beating women off you**? Did you ever think of that?!’ James mock-exasperated, stamping a foot down and making his way off to the front door.  
  
‘I’m sorry, honey, I didn’t think you’d mind.’ Sirius cooed, following off behind him.  
  
‘Of course you didn’t. Never think of anyone but yourself, do you, Sirius.’ James pretended to cry as he flung open the front door and barged out into the hall of Sirius’s building. When Sirius had first moved in, James was his most regular visitor. The fact that he was always mucking around with James every time he seemed to leave the flat, had caught the attention of Sirius’s neighbours.  
  
In particular, it had caught the attention of Sirius’s next door neighbour. The old building wasn’t glamourous, but it was in quite a nice area around Chelsea, close to the River Thames. And considering the size of the flats, it only allowed two to a floor. And Sirius’s neighbour was a very old woman and she made it very apparent from their first encounter that she did  _not_  approve of young hooligans moving in across from her. She had also made it very apparent that she did  _not_  approve of boys acting so flamboyant. And that was when Sirius and James made it their mission to make the old lady as uncomfortable as possible.  
  
Of course James’s loud yelling had reached the other side of the landing, it was a large space but the doors were only separated by the stairs leading down to the other levels of the three storey walk up. Her door cracked open and her sour face appeared in the opening, right on schedule.  
  
‘Aw, baby. Don’t be like that.’ Sirius played along, loving this game.  
  
‘No. I’ve had it up to  _here_  with your roughish,  _manliness_. You and your insolent good looks. You smell like  _sandalwood and sweat_. How am I supposed to believe you when you go out and you say you’re not meeting up with other boys?  _How could anyone resist you_?!’ James threw his hands down by his sides, knocking his glasses askew and whimpering.  
  
It was quite apparent Sirius was trying not to laugh. But he kept it together, ‘ _Baby_.’ He reached out fixing James glasses, then with a flash of his eyes in his neighbours direction to make sure she was still present, he leant in and placed a kiss to James’s cheek, ‘I hate it when you’re angry. Let me take you to dinner. I want to treat my special boy.’   
  
It was when Sirius started rubbing noses with James that they heard an indignant cry of shock and a door slam. They both broke into laughter and after Sirius locked up the flat they continued on like there was nothing of it and made their way downstairs.  
  
They left the white corner building and walked out onto the street where Sirius’s bike was parked. Sirius threw a leg over first, making sure his wand was secure in his back pocket first. James jumped on pillion soon after and without any need for explanation, Sirius started up the engine and the boys took off, roaring down the street.   
  
At one point, James yelled out ‘I love this bloody bike!’ when Sirius took a corner particularly sharply and they both laughed, coming out of it unscathed. When they got to their allotted section, set to them by Alastor Moody (a  _very_  prank-allergic Auror they’d met over the holidays) Sirius slowed down and they kept their eyes peeled for any suspicious activity.   
  
Over the past few months, they had all been tasked with patrols. And they weren’t uneventful. Since the rise of Voldemort’s powers, hooded figures were coming out of the wood works. Terrorizing muggles, torturing muggle-borns and their allies, just generally being vindictive and spiteful. Some had been caught by the Order and left, stunned to be found by the Ministry once the Order members had alerted Moody.   
  
Tonight James and Sirius had been selected to keep an eye out around a particularly sulky part of London, where they knew a lot of Death Eaters had been sighted over the past few months. It was sure it provide entertainment and James and Sirius chatted away quietly as they drove slowly around the streets and down deserted alleyways, near streets where they were aware of muggles frequenting.   
  
‘So,’ James started as Sirius parked the bike and they got off to have a look around a more populated square.  
  
‘What?’ Sirius looked back at him as they walked out into the open square filled with muggles going about their nightly business; shopping, going to dinner, taking in a show, all sorts were out.  
  
‘How’s it going with Adams? You doing alright? Being separated from the  _love of your life_?’ James played. Sirius just gave him a bland expression in reply before carrying on and looking out for suspicious individuals.  
  
‘Ugh, I guess it sucked missing her birthday.’ Sirius shrugged, ‘but we write a lot. She’d be neck deep in study anyway. But one weird thing-’ Sirius turned to look at James, but his eye caught something else as the crowd behind James came into view.  
  
‘Wait, there. Look slowly, don’t attract attention.’ Sirius kept his eyes on what he spotted as James casually turned around, looking as if he was just admiring the buildings around them.  
  
‘Three of them.’ Sirius confirmed.  
  
‘Looks like they’re following someone.’ James agreed as they started to move towards the three dark-looking figures huddled together, targeting a frightened looking man. The man kept glancing over his shoulder at them and his pace was picking up. He turned suddenly and started in the direction towards James and Sirius.  
  
‘Let’s screw up their plans, shall we?’ Sirius sounded positively delighted as they stood in wait, trying to look innocuous. The man hurried towards them and as he approached, the boys noticed a wand clutched in his hand, but of course there were too many muggles around to be able to use any defensive magic and get away without a massive ordeal.   
  
James looked sideways at Sirius and grinned like he had a well thought out plan brewing. They needed no words, Sirius trusted James’ judgement and nodded at him. The wizard barged by them, swaying Sirius momentarily and as he looked up, James was putting his plan into action.  
  
‘Oy, ye’ plug-ugly, arsemongers!’ James shouted, drawing attention to them and readying a fist only to drive it straight into the face of the first of the three attackers. He hit the man so hard, the mask under his hood flew off and scrapped to a stop a few feet away while the man fell backwards onto the cement below.   
  
Neither Sirius nor James recognised him. There were a few shocked gasps as the other two figures bent down to help the third one up.  
  
‘You little gits!’ The unidentified death eater pulled out his wand as soon as he was on his feet and both James and Sirius’s hands went to their back-pockets instinctively, but they didn’t draw them.  
  
‘Better watch it. Don’t want to cause a  _scene_.’ Sirius warned as a standoff started. The boys stood ready, watching the three before them as a crowd started to form around the five of them. That’s when one of the figures who was still masked, shouted out.  
  
‘He’s gone! They’ve lost him for us!’   
  
‘Get them!’ The second cried and they all launched forwards and James and Sirius took no time to turn around, fast as they could, sprinting back towards where they’d parked the bike.  
  
The boys both laughed all the way back, jumping on the bike as fast as they could with Sirius violently kicking up the kickstand and jumping the bike into life. They went tearing off down the alley before any of the death eaters could catch up.   
  
‘They’re following! They’ve pulled brooms out their bloody arses!’ James confirmed, looking behind for Sirius. Sirius just revved the bike, gearing up and they sped off even faster. They weaved dangerously through traffic and ran a red light, causing a car to come to a squealing halt in the middle of an intersection. They skidded around another corner and that’s when they heard a siren start up behind them.  
  
‘Shit.’ Sirius flashed a look behind, but didn’t stop and instead went full throttle ahead, with James laughing behind him, ‘I’ll try to lose them.’ Sirius rode the fastest he could, but they were in a more suburban expanse of streets now, so losing the muggle police in traffic was out of the question. Sirius roared up streets and avoided traffic lights, trying his best to lose the flashing blue lights.  
  
Sirius looked around at them once more, then took a corner so sharply he was impressed that he managed to pull both he and James out of it. It was a short lived victory however, as he had to close his hand drastically over the front brake while simultaneously slamming his foot down on the rear brake so they wouldn’t be flung off the bike as they slowed to a stop at the end of the narrow, dead-ended alleyway.   
  
They heard the police siren close in behind them and the sound of scraping metal along brick. Sirius looked back at James as James let go of the hold he had on him and then they both observed as the hefty police officers exited their car and sidled, with great difficulty, between the car and the walls of the alleyway towards them. James stifled a laugh behind Sirius and Sirius bit his lip when the larger of the two, snapped off one of their side mirrors with his bottom.   
  
‘Get off the bike!’ He bellowed, freeing himself from the mirror.  
  
‘Sure thing, tubby.’ Sirius whispered under his breath as the both of them got off the bike, with James snickering at Sirius’s comment. James was off first, followed easily by Sirius. The officers surveyed them for a moment, taking them in now that they stood before the hood of their car.  
  
‘No helmets!’ He shouted, pointed an outraged finger at both of them, ‘Exceeding the speed limit by- by a considerable amount!’  
  
‘Here we go,’ Sirius whispered, rolling his eyes, ‘those guys will be catching up any moment now.’  
  
‘Failing to stop for the police!’ The officer continued in quite a state.  
  
‘We’d love to stop for a chat,’ James tried to hurry the exchange up, ‘only we were trying-’  
  
‘Don’t get smart! You two are in a heap of trouble!’ The other officer growled, ‘Names!’  
  
‘Names?’ Sirius queried jokingly, ‘Er- well, let’s see. There’s Wilberforce… Bathsheba… Elvendork…’  
  
‘And what’s nice about that one is, you can use it for a boy or a girl,’ James added as they both tried not to laugh.  
  
‘Oh,  _our_  names, did you mean?’ Sirius continued, still keeping an eye out for the Death Eaters while the smaller officer spluttered over his words, ‘You should have said! This here’s James Potter and I’m Sirius Black.’  
  
‘Things’ll be seriously black for you in a minute, you cheeky little-’  
  
If it wasn’t for the sight of the Death Eaters coming towards them, Sirius would have applauded the officer for his pun. But as it was, both he and James reached into their back pockets in unison, grabbing their wands and readying themselves to attack. It would be easier to get by on a warning for defensive magic in front of two muggles, than it would before a huge crowd of them.   
  
‘Drumsticks? Right pair of jokers, aren’t you? Right, we’re arresting you on the charge of-’ before the smaller officer could name their charges, Sirius and James both shouted ‘ _stupefy’_  and their doubled-up stunning spells shot out before them, raising the police vehicle up on his back wheels, causing the three Death Eaters to smash directly into it.   
  
As bits of their brooms flicked around the alleyway, James and Sirius quickly rounded on the bike, jumping back onto it and kicking it back into action. When they looked back at the officers, the smaller one was sat in the larger ones lap and Sirius laughed.  
  
‘Thanks very much!’ He shouted over the growl of the bike as he flipped the switch he had built into the console, turning it to flight mode, ‘we owe you one!’   
  
‘Yeah, nice meeting you!’ James added, wrapping his arms around Sirius’s waist, ‘and don’t forget; Elvendork! It’s unisex!’ as he finished, the car came to a crash landing behind the officers and they wrapped their arms around one another in fright.   
  
Sirius revved the engine and pulled the bike up as it drove straight up into the sky and out of the confines of the alley.  
  
‘Reckon we should go back for the tossers?’ James asked looking below them.  
  
‘They’ll be down and out for a while, I bet those upstanding officers might even put them in cuffs for that scene. Let’s see just how much trouble the muggles can give them.’ Sirius grinned, flying forwards once they were high enough in the cloud cover above.   
  
‘Wicked.’ James laughed as Sirius flicked on the shrouding switch so they could fly back to their station and continue on with the rest of their patrol, ‘so what was the odd thing with Adams?’  
  
‘Oh,’ Sirius jumped straight back into his conversation, as if the last hour of time hadn’t passed them by, ‘she keeps blathering on about my brother. I don’t know how to feel about that.’ Sirius explained, screwing up his face in a confused scowl.  
  
‘Uh-oh!’ James laughed, ‘Ol’ Adams has the taste for Black and she’s  _wanting more_.’   
  
‘I will throw you from this bike, I swear to Merlin.’ Sirius warned as James cackled loudly behind him.  


	67. Actions not advised

Remus sat by the fire place of the Prewett residence, watching as James and Sirius talked in low voices to their new favourite person. Remus knew from the moment he saw him, that the dishevelled looking wizard would be a prime candidate for James’ and Sirius’s outlet for mischief. Mundungus Fletcher wasn’t the type of wizard one would go out of their way to surround themselves with. Unless you were James Potter or Sirius Black.  
  
‘And then what? And then what?’ James asked, trying to ease his laughter.   
  
‘Well I done n’ nicked it, di’n I? Di’n expect me to just leave a respectable lookin’ bit of silverware like that just layin’ there? Out in the open?’ Mundungus explained and both James and Sirius clutched their stomachs and doubled over in their chairs laughing.  
  
‘Yeah, you usually  _would_  expect to leave someone  _else’s_  silverware lying around, Fletcher.’ Frank Longbottom said while stepping in from the kitchen and rapping Mundungus over the head, taking a seat with the boys. As Mundungus rubbed his head with a sour look on his face, Sirius and James continued on laughing.  
  
Remus smiled to himself after that. He was a fan of Frank. He and his wife were newly initiated, much like their group. Frank found the Order through Alastor Moody. Frank was an Auror, along with his wife, Alice. Alice was sat in the corner at the dining table with Lily, and they were chatting away over a cup of tea that Gideon had offered to everyone.   
  
Gideon and Fabian Prewett were two of the stockiest and most menacing looking red heads Remus had ever encountered. Which was saying something, because although she might not have been stocky, Lily was menacing in her own way and the twins winning that title over her was a feat in and of itself.   
  
‘Alright! Everyone, stop your blathering! We’ve got some important stuff to go over!’ Moody strode in from the kitchen with Gideon and Fabian close behind him, ‘everyone, get over here. Diggle stop bothering the cat!’  
  
Alastor Moody was an Auror becoming quite well known for his  _knack_  with dark witches and wizards. He was an overly cautious, incredibly strict wizard and had recently lost an eye in battle, which had been replaced with an overly eccentric, electric blue one that spun about in his head. James and Sirius had affectionately come up with the nickname ‘Mad-Eye’ for him. As he shouted at the occupants of the room and ordered them about, Remus watched as Dedalus Diggle put down the Prewett’s tabby cat and made a move to where the rest of them were congregating. Alice and Lily stood from the table, but only Alice brought her chair along with her. Lily took it upon herself to shimmy by people to take a seat atop of James’s lap.  
  
Remus watched them, with an unknowing smile growing on his face. As Lily perched herself atop James, he barely batted an eyelash. The two of them had grown so in sync. It warmed Remus’s heart. Lily sat down and James just shuffled them slightly so they were in a comfortable position. He didn’t even look up, he continued his conversation with Sirius and Mundungus.   
  
‘That’s not a seat, Evans! What have I told you about personal boundaries during meetings?’ Moody snapped. That was when Peter decided to return from the bathroom and retook his seat by Remus. Moody flicked his wand and wordlessly a chair zoomed by everyone in the range of it and without a single casualty, landed between Mundungus and James.  
  
‘Park your backside on that.’ Moody warned as a few chuckles could be heard around the room.  
  
‘Moody’s just sour he doesn’t have pretty ladies’ parking their backsides on  _his_  lap.’ Fabian winked in Lily’s direction as she seated herself more professionally. Lily offered up a giggle for Fabian’s comment as the two men came to stand by the fireplace. Gideon and Fabian had taken a particular liking towards Lily since they had all joined the Order. Remus remembered them putting it off as something about “sticking together with their own kind”.   
  
‘Peter wants to know if there’s going to be snacks?’ Sirius shouted just as Moody opened his mouth to start.  
  
‘I do not!’ Peter sat up in his chair, looking around the crowd of people to where Sirius sat with Mundungus.  
  
‘Quiet! The lot of you! Dumbledore’s on the move. He’s tracking what he believes is going to be the next big target for an attack.’ Moody continued as a few more of the members of their secret society came into the room. Ali’s father appeared with his friend, Edgar Bones, both deep in conversation. Christian was holding on to his young son while Tucker rambled on to no one in particular.  
  
Their conversation ended as they joined the rest of them and Christian placed Tucker down. The little boy immediately shouted out Sirius’s name and went charging for him, jumping up on his lap and hugging him tight around the neck. Moody was quiet for the moments distraction.  
  
‘What? He’s allowed to sit on one of the blockheads and I’m not?’ Lily sounded off and the room dissolved into chuckles. Everyone but Moody, anyway. Gideon elbowed Lily gently, praising her for her call while Edgar and Christian took their places, apologising to Moody for the interruption.  
  
As Moody continued on, things got more serious. Since joining the Order, Remus and the boys had all been tasked with mission’s non-stop. If they weren’t on patrols of populated wizarding areas, they were given specified things to accomplish. Gathering intel, helping those that had suffered attacks, protecting specific wizards that had threats made against them. In the short time since joining, Remus was sure he had saved more lives than he thought could have been possible.  
  
As Moody went into details about a possible attack at a quidditch match in Cornwall and the fact that they would need extra hands for crowd control and eyes out for danger, James jumped up.  
  
‘I volunteer! I’m there!’   
  
‘Sit down, Potter!’ Moody shook his head, ‘you can go. Who else is up for it? I need eight of you.’  
  
Remus raised his hand, ‘I don’t see why not?’  
  
‘Well don’t sound  _too_  eager, you’ll show Potter up.’ Moody simply raised an eyebrow in Remus’s direction, but all Remus could offer him in return was an amused smile.  
  
‘Count me in!’ Frank waved, ‘Alice, too.’  
  
‘Yeah, I’m always down for danger. It’s my middle name.’  
  
‘Isn’t your middle name Onion?’ Lily stood, smacking Sirius’s hand down, ‘I’m in, too. Can’t let you boys have all the fun.’ She said, swooping Tucker up into her arms and rubbing noses with him.   
  
‘Yeah! To hell with boys!’ Tucker shouted.  
  
‘Tucker!’ Christian’s immediate response was to chastise his son, but it wasn’t long before he joined in the laughter around the room.  
  
‘Do you want to come, Wormtail?’ Remus looked beside him, at Peter. Peter seemed to think on it for a moment.  
  
‘Yeah, alright.’ He nodded.  
  
‘Peter’s in, too. So we just need one more?’ Remus spoke over to growing chatter around the cramped living area.   
  
‘Fletch! Fletch! I nominate, Fletch!’ James made a fuss where he was seated, as if it were some dire situation.  
  
‘Yeah, I s’pose. Better than having to pay for the match, at least? Aye?’ Mundungus let out a laugh, joined by Sirius and James.  
  
‘I don’t like the sounds of all the young ones going at this alone.’ Gideon said, still standing by his brother.  
  
‘The Longbottom’s are Aurors, Gideon. Trained them myself. They’re in good hands. I’ll see if I can have Alice and Frank assigned as ministry detail to the area, so if anything gets out of hand, they can call it in with the higher ups. Adams, you can sway Crouch with that, can’t you?’ Moody turned to Christian, seemingly pleased with the group. After Christian confirmed he would attempt it, Moody continued on with the details and some extra information on their new patrolled areas. Remus started to tune out when the information they were going over no longer included him.   
  
It had been months since they had graduated. Ali had gone back to school and they hadn’t. They were in the real world now. They were adults. For the time being, Remus was happy having a purpose, which was the Order. But the Order wasn’t a paying job and Remus didn’t want to burden his parents much longer with his monthly transitions. Even though the boys were still helping him suffer through them with company.   
  
When the Order meeting came to an end and farewells were being said, James managed to slide over to where Remus was standing alone and captured him in a side hug.  
  
‘What’s plans for tonight, Moony?’ James had a telling smirk and Remus narrowed his eyes.  
  
‘Nothing. Why?’  
  
‘Wrong!’ James shouted as Peter joined them at the back door of the house. It was situated just behind the dining table and beside a large bookcase filled with dusty, probably seldom-read wizarding books, ‘we’re going for drinks! My shout! I need my  _boys_. I need to celebrate.’  
  
‘Celebrate what, exactly?’ Peter raised a brow.  
  
‘Well, I went for a couple of those quidditch trials the other day. Aced them. Of course.’ James shrugged as if it was the easiest thing in the world.  
  
‘Really? That’s awesome! You didn’t tell us? I would have come!’ Peter pepped up, grinning at James and looking as if he were trying to imagine to scene of James wowing professional quidditch teams.  
  
‘I thought it best to test the waters on my own, Wormtail. I mean, they were just trials. I’ve no idea what will even come of it. It’s all very official, of course.’ James droned on, explaining his athletic excellence in detail to Peter, who lapped it all up like a dehydrated puppy presented with a chilled bowl of water. Remus took that moment to look over to where Lily was putting Tucker down and talking to Ali’s father with Sirius. Remus was still enjoying James’s contact, but not really paying enough attention. He had been in a constant state of distraction for months now.  
  
‘What’s all this then? Making plans without the two most important members of the gang?’ Lily asked as she made it over to them, having said goodbye to the Adams’. Sirius wasn’t far behind her.  
  
‘Yeah? How dare you. How terrible would the three of your look without us? One lump, a giant, and toupee with glasses. You lot would be laughed out of any bar.’  
  
‘No questions asked,’ Lily agreed while James, Remus and Peter took their jesting, silently, ‘they wouldn’t serve any of you without me, though. Onion boy wouldn’t be enough to sway it.’ Lily nodded away calmly. Sirius was on the verge of agreeing, until he registered her words and dropped his jaw to make a shocked O shape with his mouth, but no sound was emitted as he stared at her.  
  
‘We’re going out! We’ve all been working so hard. I just feel like a relaxing night out is on the cards. My shout and I say we  _get sloshed_.’ James finished, setting Remus free from his embrace and giving the small circle the thumbs up and a wink.  
  
‘Did someone say free drinks?’ Mundungus seemed to appear out of nowhere, behind Lily and Sirius and the entire circle burst into laughter.  
  
*  
  
Remus was the first to the bar at the specified time they had all decided on. It was a bustling little wizarding pub in Tutshill, close to where James lived with his mother. Remus had found them a table towards the back of the traditional looking pub and was happily listening to the live band when Peter arrived.  
  
‘It’s so  _loud_.’ Peter squared his watery little eyes in the direction of the band as he took a seat beside Remus.  
  
‘It’s alright. Kind of drums out any noise in your head, at least.’ Remus smiled at him.   
  
Peter sighed, ‘I guess. Moony, what are we doing?’  
  
‘Um, I do believe we’re being forced into celebrating Prongs’ flying a loop-de-loop on his broom.’ Remus nodded, as if he had to really think on the matter.  
  
‘No, I mean,  _what are we doing_?’ Peter reiterated, flailing his arms about. Remus was at a loss and just watched him, waiting for him to go into greater detail. ‘We can’t work for free forever. We’ve graduated, but none of us have any prospect of a job. It’s just a little terrifying, don’t you think?’   
  
Remus had noticed Peter seeming much more on edge of late. He knew he was never really as into the idea of being Order members as Sirius and James. Although it was amazing, knowing they were doing their part and helping in the war waging on in their world, Remus knew Peter had a point. It was simple for James and Sirius. They both had large supplies of money at their disposal. Not having an income wasn’t a real concern for them.   
  
‘I’m not sure I even  _can_  get a job.’ Remus sighed, mirroring Peter as they slouched down in their wooden seats and stared at the flickering candle on the table before them.   
  
‘Hey guys,’ Sirius’s voice sounded over the noise of the pub and the band, ‘um, Moony. Prongs and Evans aren’t far off, I came ahead to warn you-’ Remus looked up at Sirius as he pulled his hand through his hair, ‘McKinnon, she’s with them. Evans invited her, reckons you guys need to chat. She’s not going to say as much, but I just thought I’d warn you.’  
  
Remus groaned loud enough it could be heard over the band, ‘does she  _want_  that?’  
  
‘Evans? Oh, definitely. She hasn’t shut up about it since we left the Prewett’s. “Marls is being silly. I’m sure if they just talked it over. Remus isn’t any different than he was before.” Yak, yak, yak.’  
  
‘No, Padfoot.  _Marlene_. Does  _Marlene_  want that?’ Remus just stared at his friend blankly.  
  
‘Oh,’ Sirius chuckled, ‘hey she wouldn’t have agreed to, otherwise, right?’ He finished his sentence just in time, because James burst in, shouting about a tab and Lily came into view with a sweet smile, pulling Marlene along with her.  
  
In the beginning it was awkward. Remus didn’t know what to say and so he stood to greet Marlene and stepped on her foot. Which in turn made her step back and knock over one of the bar maids who was levitating a large order of pints to a table. Thankfully they were all of the magical community and the clean-up was pretty effortless.  
  
After that Mundungus turned up and everyone started throwing back butterbeers. Thanks to the commotion he caused by crushing her extremities, Remus wasn’t sure what Marlene’s reaction to his greeting was. Did she step back due to him assaulting her foot? Or because she was still repulsed by what he was? While everyone around him engaged in conversation and drank pint after pint of butterbeer, Remus slowly sipped on his, watching Marlene from time to time when he was sure no one could see him.   
  
‘Right, Moony?’ Sirius’s voice pierced his solitude but at the mention of his nickname, Remus watched Marlene flinch and place her butterbeer down.  
  
Remus felt the pit of his stomach drop, ‘I beg your pardon?’ Remus asked, looking over to Sirius, who was sat beside Mundungus at the end of the table.  
  
‘That prank you pulled at the end of term. It was your best work, by far.’ Sirius gave him a smile that Remus wasn’t used to receiving from his haughty looking friend. Sirius looked almost apologetic, it made Remus swallow before he could reply.  
  
‘Uh, yeah. Well, I had to snap you out of that damp mood. You look much better when you’re acting as if you’re too good for anyone around you.’ Remus joked and the table erupted into laughter. Sirius’s normal, sly smirk returned as he joined in.  
  
When Peter started up another retelling of their Hogwarts days, Remus returned to his butterbeer and dared another look Marlene’s way. She was looking at him. He choked on the sip he was taking and dribbled butterbeer foam down his chin. As he lifted his palm up to sweep away the remains, realizing no one else had seen, he saw Marlene cover her mouth as she laughed at him.  
  
He couldn’t help the lopsided smile he gave her after that. His heart started thumping away in his chest as they kept eye contact for a moment, oblivious to the story Lily was diving into and the rowdy pub-goers, even the band was background noise. Marlene mouthed ‘can I talk to you?’ to him and Remus froze, inhaling and just staring back, bewildered.   
  
‘Yeah,’ he said, but no one would have heard it. Marlene pointed to the pub’s exit and stood up from her chair, brushing by James and Lily as she made her way to a more secluded area. As Remus stood to follow, he noticed Lily had stopped her story to smile at him.   
  
‘Uh, just getting some fresh air.’ Remus explained.  
  
‘’Course.’ Sirius chimed in, nodding at him like it was the worst lie he’d ever told. Truly, it could have been.  
  
‘What’s happening? M’i missing something?’ Mundungus asked and the table laughed as Remus headed towards the exit.   
  
Outside there was a pokey-looking deck of sorts, overlooking the road below. But there weren’t many people on it, as it obscured the music and arguably that was probably what most of the crowd was there for. Plus there were only bar stools and no tables. It probably had a lot to do with the fact that there was only very few months of the year that it was an acceptable temperature to be seated outdoors. And that the little tavern was hidden from muggle bystanders. Marlene was standing by the railing, leaning over it, looking down at where the street lamps were lit and unsuspecting muggles were walking by, unaware of the bustling pub that should have been in plain view.   
  
‘Hey.’ Remus spoke softly, leaning the same way against the railing and choosing to look out at the road, instead of at Marlene.  
  
‘Hey.’ Marlene returned. After that the two of them stood in silence for a while. There were a few wizards and witches coming and going but other than that it was mostly deserted. Remus swallowed, not knowing what to say. The last time they had seen each other, Marlene couldn’t even look him in the eye. She had avoided him almost flawlessly since she had found out his secret and Remus wasn’t about to push himself on her.  
  
‘I need to apologise; the way I acted-’  
  
‘Please. Don’t.’ Remus stopped her. He heard her shift to face him as she spoke. But he wasn’t quite ready to look away from the unsuspecting muggles below. There was an elderly couple walking by. The woman had her arm wrapped around the man’s. She was watching him out of the corner of her eye as they walked along. Her gaze was so tender, it was a clear indication of the level of devotion she shared for her partner. The man was holding onto the hand she had rested on his other arm and looking out for any imposing danger. He was protecting her.  
  
The sight was both endearing and heart-breaking for Remus. He was so unsure he would ever be given the chance to find someone who accepted him the way that couple had accepted one another. He was unsure he would ever find someone he could grow old with and love as fiercely as the two muggles below them loved each other.   
  
‘It’s okay. I understand.’ Remus continued to watch the couple, finding some kind of solace in their kinship, ‘It’s why- Well, I didn’t want to lead you on. I didn’t think, well- I didn’t want you to have to-’  
  
‘Remus.’ Marlene stopped him. Her voice sounded strained and rough and when he turned away from the elderly couple, Marlene had tears in her eyes, ‘I’m sorry.’ Her voice was only just above a whisper as she spoke. The tears in her eyes welled up and began to flow over the edges as the two of them stood, frozen, just staring.  
  
‘You don’t have to be.’ Remus said, reaching out to take her hand. But as he moved to touch her, Marlene suddenly flinched, backing away from his contact and looking at the floor.  
  
‘Shit.’ She muttered, looking up again. ‘I’m sorry.’ She looked at him as if she had never been so conflicted. But even as she tried to cover it up, the damage was done.   
  
Remus felt a tightness in his chest from the undeniable rejection. Marlene couldn’t even stand to touch him. Or be touched by him. It had been so long since his affliction had been poorly received. Before he had come to Hogwarts, he had become so used to this treatment. People had feared him since before he could remember. Even his father could barely stand to look at him coming up to the full moon.   
  
His internal hatred had only eased since James, Sirius and Peter had welcomed him into their lives, despite what he was. He was shocked, still, when Lily had given him the same welcome. For years, with the boys treating his sickness like it was a joke and nothing of real danger, Remus started to believe maybe it wasn’t such a big deal? Maybe he might just have stood a chance at a semi-normal life?  
  
But this is what he was really in for. No matter how kindly his friends treated him, the fact of the matter was that Remus Lupin was a werewolf. And with that title, brought an acceptance that no matter how much someone cared for him, he could never expect them to deal with what he was.  
  
‘I’m sorry.’ Remus turned back to the railing to hide the hurt look on his face. The elderly couple was almost gone from sight but he tried to focus on them to dull the pain he had been trying so hard to forget about. Rejection was mortifying in any circumstance.   
  
‘Remus…’ Marlene’s voice was still soft and laced with anguish. Remus shut his eyes once the elderly couple had disappeared and just waited out the inevitable “I can’t deal with this. This is too much for you to ask of me.” But it didn’t come. Instead, he felt a cold hand settle on his jaw and pull his face towards its owner.  
  
‘Remus, I still love you.’ Marlene admitted and before he could even let go of the breath he inhaled at her words, Marlene leant in and kissed him.   
  
At first Remus was in complete and utter shock. With one hand still clasped around the railing of the balcony and the other hanging limp by his side, he awkwardly received the kiss until Marlene drew back and looked at him.  
  
‘I’m just- this is- this is confusing for me.’ Marlene reached up and wiped the tears from her eyes, ‘Werewolf’s’ she whispered the word  _so_ quietly it was almost as if she had mouthed it, ‘they are  _not_  well received in my family. There was- there was an incident-’ her sentence became strangled with the fresh tears falling from her eyes once again.  
  
Remus was in such a great deal of shock, he was only just registering what she had done. Suddenly something came over him and he reached out and took her face in his hands and pulled her in for a continuation of their prior connection. He placed his lips against her own and this time it was Marlene that was in shock. But by the time his tongue had delved into her mouth, most of the shock seemed to have melted away in the cool autumn air.  
  
For quite some time the comings and goings of the magical patrons of the pub went unnoticed to both the entangled recipients of the prolonged kiss. Remus towered over Marlene in height, despite Marlene being the tallest of their female friends. Marlene had almost completely lost the notion of flinching at his touch and instead had her arms up around Remus’s neck. They refused to break the contact for what felt like hours.   
  
Every so often Remus would pull away to stare down at the beauty before him and his heart pounded hard in his chest, just like the first kiss they shared in the Hogwarts library, so long ago.  
  
‘I love you, too.’ Remus pulled a hand up from her waist to rest against her cheek, ‘I never stopped loving you.’  
  
When he finished his sentence, Marlene’s eyes welled up once more. She quickly wiped the tears from her eyes and bit her lip. She let her head fall forwards and rested her forehead against his clavicle, little sobs escaping every few seconds until they subsided completely.  
  
‘Let’s go inside.’ Marlene spoke, her breath hot against his chest.  
  
He closed his arms around her, letting his chin rest on the top of her head, ‘sure thing.’   
  
They stayed in their embrace for just a little while longer, not needing to explain to each other why they required those few extra seconds that way. Once Marlene seemed to have put herself back together, she looped her little finger around Remus’s, and lead them back into the loud and, if it was possible,  _fuller_  pub.   
  
‘Opa!’ James shouted at their return, sloshing a large glass of something Remus was unsure of the contents. It certainly wasn’t butterbeer.   
  
‘Epé!’ Peter shouted, sloshing his around next and the entire table broke into laughter.  
  
‘You two need to  _catch up_!’ Lily waved a finger in Remus’s face, standing to let them back over to the two remaining seats, which were conveniently now together.  
  
‘Slebs neb, herrr.’ Sirius winked at them as they took the seats. Remus wasn’t entirely sure the wink was intentional.   
  
‘Thought you two’d skipped out on us.’ Mundungus said just before finishing off at least half a pint of whatever the red concoction was they all seemed to have moved on to.  
  
‘ _Nah_. They were just snogging.’ Lily waggled her eyebrows at them.  
  
‘Lily.’ At first Marlene was glaring at her best friend. But when Lily went to put her elbow on the table for some kind of stability and missed the wooden bench completely, almost falling out of her chair, Marlene snorted out and laugh, ‘Merlin, what are you all on?’  
  
‘Dung’s been getting ‘em,’ James hiccupped and took his glasses off to squint at Marlene and Remus, ‘I think I can see better  _without_  these because of it though.’ James looked mildly impressed before he dropped his glasses onto the table and took up his drink once more.  
  
‘Dung?’ Remus asked, reaching out to save James’s glasses before they became collateral damage.  
  
‘Yeah. I forget the rest of it.’ James shrugged, finishing off the rest of his drink.  
  
‘Bar maid! There’s a lovely lass, can we please have another round on my good man, Mister Potter’s, tab?’ Mundungus asked, flagging over a passing bar maid. She gave the table a once over and her eyes settled on Marlene and Remus.  
  
‘Your call.’ She gave them the deciding vote. Marlene looked at Remus with a furrowed brow, but Remus let his heightened happiness due to the strange turn of events out on the deck, get the better of him.  
  
‘One more round, then we’ll get them home.’ Remus shrugged and saw Marlene smirk when he looked back at her.   
  
One more round wasn’t one more round, however. Once Remus and Marlene had one of the fruity tasting drinks Mundungus had gotten them all onto, it was hard to stop. Even Peter, who  _always_  held his own in the face of alcoholic beverages, was swaying in his seat.  
  
One round turned into a second; turned into a third; turned into a fourth; and by that point the chatter around their table had gotten so loud they were drowning out the band. All seven of them became deeply immersed in separate conversations. During the course of the rounds, Sirius had somehow managed to worm his way in between Remus and Marlene’s seats and was couched down between them.  
  
‘I juz- I juz-’ he pouted, going slightly cross-eyed. Remus just started laughing at him, unable to pretend as if it wasn’t hilarious watching him struggle with  _every_  sentence that came out of his mouth.  
  
‘You just  _what_?’ Marlene asked, mouth agape in a content smile.  
  
Sirius drew in a deep breath, ‘falafel.’ He nodded like he was happy with that response then sat down on the floor.  
  
‘You stupid dog, you can’t  _sit on the floor of a pub_.’ Remus continued laughing, trying to drag Sirius up off the floor. But he wasn’t committed enough to the task to have stood up to aid him and instead Sirius just ended up half draped over his lap. That put Marlene into a fit of laughter and Remus was hazily entranced by the beauty of her exuberance.   
  
When she caught him staring, a small blush rose to her already alcohol flushed cheeks, ‘hey, maybe we should get them all home, before we’re as drunk as they are?’ she had to shout her words to be heard.  
  
Remus felt like he might have already been too drunk. But he was certainly more coherent than the rest of the table. Most certainly more so than the occupant currently sleeping in his lap. He looked down and started laughing at Sirius again before he looked up and nodded in agreement to Marlene.   
  
It was no easy feat, getting Lily, James,  _and_  Sirius onto their feet. Sirius was only on his because he was being completely supported by Remus. Who also had Lily around the waist. Peter and Mundungus were supporting each other and cackling away about something Remus couldn’t quite focus on and Marlene had made off to the bar, following James.  
  
‘Okay, he  _tried_  to get another round. But the bar maid laughed at him and so he settled the tab.’ Marlene explained once she returned, James leaning on her.   
  
‘Where’s my  _lady_?’ James cried, pathetically flailing his arms around and almost falling face first onto the floor below. Thankfully Marlene caught him and steadied him.  
  
‘Quick, back to Potter’s before we lose one of them.’ Marlene implored, disapparating soon after.  
  
‘Wormtail, can you get Mundungus home?’ Remus asked, breaking their conversation.  
  
‘Oy, I can hold my own here, don’t lump me in with those light weights.’ Mundungus declared, grabbing a hold of Peter and disapparating, also. Remus let loose a chuckle knowing full well bringing Peter along with him wasn’t part of Mundungus’s game plan.   
  
‘Right,’ he got a better grip on the limp form of Sirius, ‘ready to go, Lily?’ He knew it was pointless asking, but he was a gentlemen after all.  
  
‘Fire away, cowboy!’ Lily shouted, before bursting into giggles and Remus disapparated the three of them, hoping above hope when they reappeared it wouldn’t be on top of any furniture.   
  
Luckily he managed to apparate them perfectly in the confines of James’s bedroom, but James and Marlene were M.I.A. He lowered Lily down onto James’s bed, which she didn’t seem to object much to and worked next on dragging Sirius into the next room over that he knew would always be known as Sirius’s bedroom, regardless of Sirius now owning his own flat.   
  
‘Sleepy wolf.’ Sirius managed to say, reaching up and tapping him on the nose, once Remus had heaved him onto the bed. It took less than a nano second for his eyes to close and he was out cold. Sirius always was the worst at handling his drink. Remus smiled down at his friend, shaking his head as he took off his shoes and pulled the blanket over him.  
  
Once he was back out in the dark hallway, he looked into James room to see it was still only occupied by one redhead. He set off towards the stairs to locate the other two that he knew were close by. Poor Peter would have to fend for himself this time. He tip toed down the stairs, trying not to wake Mrs Potter and found the culprits in the kitchen.  
  
‘The old nutter ban him.’ James was laughing, looking very odd without his glasses, perched on the kitchen bench, eating rolled up slices of cold meat.  
  
‘I didn’t know Dumbledore had a brother.’ Marlene was leaning up against the bench, eating with James.  
  
‘Who was ban?’ Remus asked, joining them.  
  
‘Mung. Dung. Whatever. Ban from the Hogs Head. For  _life_. How do you get  _ban from the Hogs Head_?’ James started laughing, then suddenly something dawned on him, ‘wait,  _where’s Lily_?!’ He all but shouted.  
  
‘Quiet, Prongs!’ Remus hushed him, ‘she’s in your bed, probably passed out cold, just like Sirius.’  
  
‘Oh thank  _Merlin_. I don’t think I could find another girlfriend that actually finds my terrible pickup lines endearing. I’d literally be doomed to walk the earth alone.’ James’ slipped down from the bench and almost lost his footing, yet again.   
  
‘Well, I’m off to be the little spoon.’ James looked as if he was trying to salute them, but he kind of just smacked himself in the face in the process. He frowned for a moment before he drank in the sight before him, ‘um, if you blurry kids want to stay the night, there’s another spare room. Just go back into the entrance hall and the formal sitting room, the one with the piano in it? There’s a guest bedroom down the stairs in there.’ Before he had even finished speaking, he had left the room.   
  
They heard him struggle his way back up the stairs and a few colourful curses whispered, before his door creaked shut and then there was a very real silence ringing around them.   
  
‘I’ll, uh, go. You can take the room.’ Remus looked at Marlene in the moonlight filtering in through the kitchen window.  
  
‘Wait.’ Marlene reached out and grabbed a hold of his wrist as he turned, intending to disapparate home. When he turned back, Marlene was looking down at where their bodies met. She kept her eyes fixated on the grip she had on him and when she looked up her expression was unreadable.  
  
‘Marlene, I don’t- I don’t want to- maybe we should-’ he didn’t want to say the words. He didn’t want to continue to deter her from the only contact in this world that he truly pined for. He had become so used to pushing away the things in his life he wanted most, he wasn’t sure he  _could_  accept them if the opportunity arose.  
  
‘What? No, honestly. What, Remus? Because I’m a little sick of this always being about you. You never thought of me in all of that theatrical nonsense. You just dumped me like a sack of potatoes.’ She sounded like she was choking up again as she dropped the hold she had on him and fell against the bench behind her.  
  
Remus wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol, or just the insane desire surging through him to touch and be touched, like they used to. He reached out, pulling his body against hers and covered her lips with his own again. He knew it was wrong. He could still feel the hesitation in Marlene. She wasn’t the same. There was a reserved factor to the way they connected now, compared to the way they once had before she had found out the truth.   
  
But for this once, Remus allowed a glimmer of selfish desire to take over his mind as he pinned Marlene up against the counter and the sounds of their heavy breathing and the smack of their lips against each other’s filled the large kitchen as they delved into kiss, after kiss, after kiss. Remus found it was his hands that found their way under her shirt and he wasn’t sure why? What was he trying to prove? He knew he should have stopped. He should have been the bigger person and put an end to something he knew in his heart wasn’t perfectly right.  
  
But the way Marlene kissed him always drove him wild. As her leg slid up his left side and her hand disappear below the waistband of his jeans they suddenly felt the need to find a more secluded area. Remus took Marlene’s hand and led her back out of the kitchen. They went through and out into the entrance hall and off to the left into the barely used formal area. Once they had shut the door in the guest bedroom, there were mere seconds before clothes were being torn off and discarded like they were plagued with disease.   
  
That night Remus finally let his guard down completely and allowed himself to believe that just maybe…  _maybe_  someone could love him for what he was. 


	68. School me, Adams

‘They can’t just  _cancel_  it. They can’t just cancelit without us having our say at least! What is the point of appointing leaders of the student body if not to  _listen_  to them! How effective is it to  _cancel_ the only thing the students look forward to? Board of Governors? More like… more like… board of  _dictators_!’ Ali threw her arms down, ceasing her pacing back and forth before her desk in the Heads office. Regulus, who was seated at his own desk across from hers, looked like he was struggling to concentrate on the letter in his hand over watching Ali’s dramatic display unfold.  
  
‘How long did it take you to come up with that?’ He smirked to himself.  
  
‘Hogsmeade, Black! They’re cancelling  _Hogsmeade_  trips!  **Without asking us of the consequences**! The students are going to be furious! We’ll have even more trouble controlling their outbursts and restlessness! Who’s going to pay for this decision? Let me give you a hint.  _It’s not the bloody board of Governors_!’  
  
‘Let it all out.’ Regulus nodded, looking back over the letter they had just received detailing why the board of Governors had made the executive decision that Hogsmeade trips had become too much of a liability and had since decided to discontinue them until further notice; in the students best interest.   
  
She started up her pacing once more, ‘I’m already pulling my hair out thanks to the unnamed little punter running around leaving trails of destruction in the form of hexed objects around the school.  _And you are no fucking help_.’ She flung a hand out in his direction, aiming a well delivered accusatory finger directly at his face.   
  
‘ _Me_? What have I done?’ Regulus’s previous humour at Ali’s flustered state vanished quite fast, replaced instantly by contempt.   
  
‘It’s not what you’ve  _done_. It’s what you’ve  _not_  done. For example, I don’t know,  _anything this entire term_. I have done everything. I have pulled your slack around while you just abuse your powers to gain your snobby friends' access to places they  _shouldn’t be._  Don’t think I don’t bloody know you’ve been out with them after hours.  _I know_.’   
  
‘What are you accusing me of!?’ Regulus’ chair screeched out behind him as he took to his feet abruptly.   
  
‘I’m accusing you of being out after hours with Barty Crouch and Rabastan Lestrange, for one!’ Ali marched over to stand before Regulus now that he was on his feet. Their office could not be considered small or pokey. Just as the prefects' bathroom was a lavish and revered space, as was the Heads of the school's office.   
  
It wasn’t particularly massive, but large enough to play host to their two hefty oak desks, a scarlet velvet couch in the corner and a decent sized plush rug before the small fireplace to the left of their desks. The walls were lined with bookcases and there was barely a free space for a new book. The office had become Aaliyah’s sanctuary. It wasn’t as often that Regulus chose to join her, though.   
  
‘You know, you’ve been an absolute  _prat_  this year. If I sneak out after hours with them, it’s in an attempt to avoid  _you_.’ Regulus spoke down at her as Ali tried to draw up taller, falling short of his stature by at least two inches.   
  
‘You are not making  _anything_  easier! Do you have any idea what I’ve had to do while you’re off running about being horrible? Do you!?’ Suddenly her bottom lip began to tremble as she looked up into Regulus’s cold blue eyes. She instantly noticed his stance soften as she was forced to lift a hand up to her eye to brush away an escaping tear.  
  
‘I’ve been doing all of this on my own. You’re just riding the fame and playing up the "cool guy" status while I run along behind you. “Oh that Regulus, he’s so mysterious and  _cool_. He’s a seeker. He’s Head Boy. Oh Regulus, what a  _pompous git_!”’ Ali broke character with her scathing remark. She wasn’t sure how she managed to rile herself up into such an emotional state, but first term was almost over and she was starting to crack from the pressure.  
  
‘You know, I’m almost certain no one’s saying that.’ Regulus tried to chime in but Ali just regained her height now allowing the tears to fall freely from her eyes.  
  
‘I’m sick of it! I’m worn out! I’m doing all your work, and mine! I haven’t had  _any_ time to read, since I’m trying to study along with all of this,’ she gestured around them at the desks covered in letters detailing a bulk of their duties, ‘then the homework load this year is even doing  _my_ head in. And I’m here every night, alone and I just- I can’t take this anymore! No one is going to scream at  _you_  when we announce there will be no Hogsmeade trip next term, either!’  
  
‘Adams, you’re o-’  
  
‘And not only that I’m trying to keep up with all these stupid demands and the prefects keep dumping their detentions to me.  _A flipping fifth year managed to get me to take her detention last month_. So she could go to  _your_  quidditch match! How pathetic am I?’ It was almost as if Ali had popped the cork on her emotions now and could no longer stop it from bubbling out the top.  
  
‘Adams-’   
  
‘And if that’s not all enough, Dumbledore expects so much from me and I can’t handle it anymore! I just want to go to bed and sleep for the rest of the school year. I just want to- I just want to-’ she could feel the cold sting of the winter chill penetrating their office through the window washing up against the streams of tears on each of her cheeks, ‘I just miss your stupid brother. I miss having someone at this school to  _talk_  to. I miss- I miss-’ Ali felt a shooting pain in her chest, ‘I miss my Mum.’   
  
Ali pulled her hands up to cover her face, not bothering to wipe away the salty trails, but instead just trying to hide. It was almost Christmas and she was falling to pieces. She had spent the last three months alone, drowning in responsibilities. Dumbledore had tasked her with watching Regulus and his friends and while it might not have been a massive task, along with everything else it was just weighing her down to the point of unbearable.   
  
Unable to stop herself crying now that she had started, she just stood with her face covered, crying into her hands. Back before she had made friends at Hogwarts she had gotten so used to spending her days alone she didn’t realize there was a different way of living. Her sixth year had been both the best and worst year of her life. She had made real friends and realized what it was like to feel supported. But she had also lost a large portion of the support she’d had her entire life.   
  
Ali was dealing with the fact that her mother was gone. She was truly coming to terms with it. It had been eight months now. But she had never experience what it was like to lose so much of her comfort zone all at once. Before she had made friends at Hogwarts she had written to her parents so much it felt like she was still there with them. Now that Kanika was gone, Christian clearly had his hands full with her little brother, and work, and order meetings. His letters were usually fleeting and far between. And even though she was getting letters from Sirius, Peter, Remus, and Lily (who wrote on James’ behalf, also) it was almost like a cruel substitute. Now that she knew what it was like having people to collapse before and talk to after a trying day, being devoid of it was crippling.   
  
As she wept into her palms, she could barely hear the cackling of the fire behind her. She wanted desperately to stop her outburst, but it had been coming for such a long time now she couldn’t help it. Just as she was desperately trying to catch her breath between sobs she felt the cool touch of Regulus’s fingers closing over the backs of her hands and pulling them away from her face.  
  
When she looked up at him through her tears and her sobs subsided somewhat, Regulus’s face was passive and unreadable. This wasn’t strange for him. His face was always divvied up between polite smiles and no emotion at all. He was the strangest person Ali had ever met. One minute he was making jokes with her, the next he was putting his nose up at her. His varying acceptance of her was like fire and ice.   
  
As they stared back at each other, Ali’s eyes dividing their attention from one of his unreadable blue iris’s to the next, she realized he had placed his hands inside of her own, holding them down at their waists.   
  
‘I’m sorry.’ Regulus spoke as Ali’s cheeks were brushed with heat from the fact that his grip on her had not waned.   
  
‘Well,’ Ali pulled her hands back, ‘don’t be. Just- just do some work. Pull your- weight.’ She was still battling with her sobs as she focused her attention at the floor, wiping her cheeks with the sleeve of her robes.  
  
‘That’s not what I’m sorry about.’ As he finished his sentence, Ali’s face snapped back up to read his features. He had a small crease between his dark eyebrows and his combed hair had fallen forward slightly from the way he was looking down at her. He didn’t seem perturbed in the slightest that she had yanked away from his touch.  
  
‘Then, what-’  
  
‘Your mother.’ The two worded reply cut through her, ‘I’m sorry you miss her. When you go home for Christmas, you can see my “stupid brother”. But, you won’t see her. And- that’s not fair.’ Regulus looked up at the flickering light of the flame-lit chandelier above them. Ali watched him. He looked like he was battling with something. But, that was normal, too. Regulus often looked as if he was battling with more than a seventeen year old should.   
  
Regulus focused back on her, ‘I’ll announce to the students about Hogsmeade.’   
  
Ali’s brows furrowed together as she looked back at him, ‘do you, perhaps, have a split personality?’ She spoke her words calmly as she glared back at the boy before her.   
  
Regulus coughed out a short laugh and covered his mouth with a loose fist, ‘tell me about your mother.’   
  
‘What?’ Ali was caught off guard as her frown melted away and she watched as Regulus moved back to sit at his desk.  
  
‘Sit down and tell me something nice about your mother.’ Regulus nodded at her desk across from his after he was seated once again and Ali felt obliged to comply.  
  
She took in a deep breath and wiped at her face again with her robes. She tried to think of something about her mother to tell Regulus, but nothing of seeming importance came to mind. The only lasting things she felt embedded in her memory about Kanika anymore was Dumbledore informing her that she was dead and seeing her face looking so peaceful and detached inside her casket at the funeral.   
  
‘I can’t think of anything.’ She spoke absently, slotting back into her chair and settling her forearms down on her desk.  
  
‘My mother likes to take me shopping.’ Regulus started. When Ali looked up at him, that polite smile was fixed on his face, ‘I don’t know what it is, but she really gets a kick out of it. I think, mostly, it has a lot to do with the fact that she gets to pick the people around us to pieces with scathing remarks. But it makes her happy. And when I see a smile on her face, when she takes me to get my robes tailored, or to buy me a new broom… the smile makes all the other stuff worth it.’  
  
Ali watched Regulus as he spoke, trying desperately to decipher the connotation of his story. Trying to picture Walburga Black smiling was something else entirely. Ali realised she was screwed up her face in disgust just in time to soften it when Regulus looked up at her.  
  
‘I’ve heard a few stories about your mother.’ Ali replied, unable to mask her contempt.  
  
‘I’m sure you have.’ Regulus’s smile faded.  
  
Ali sighed, pushing her hands out over the desk and laying down with her head to the side. She watched the fire spewing out little spurts of embers and smiled.  
  
‘Once, I set our couch on fire.’ Ali lifted her head, pulling her arms back towards her to rest her chin on them, ‘Mum was  _so_  angry because I kept using all these cusses that Dad had taught me. Dad had left for work and she was looking after me, trying to teach me that bad words should  _not_  be uttered before adults no matter what Dad had told me. But I was always questioning her.’ Ali started laughing, thinking of the way the memory played out.  
  
‘She was telling me off and I got so frustrated with her and suddenly the couch just burst into flames.’ Ali continued giggling, ‘we both got so startled by it we just started screaming. I was only about nine at the time. And Mum and I lost our brains in that moment and were running around screaming because the couch was on fire and neither of us knew why.’ Ali could see Kanika clearly in her mind, screaming and scooping her up away from the danger, hollering towards the flames like it would have made a difference.  
  
‘Mum grabbed me up and was just kicking at the fire like it was some kind of tamable beast. And when I saw her doing that I just started laughing. And I guess the flames started because I was angry, so when I started laughing they disappeared and we were both standing in there stunned.  
  
               ‘After she realized the danger was gone Mum just hugged me into her and started kissing any part of my face she could get at. Back then I thought that kind of thing was embarrassing.’ Ali sat up, propping her head up with her left hand and sighing. What she would have given to be in an “embarrassing” situation like that again.  
  
‘You mean, you didn’t get in trouble for that? Setting the couch alight?’ When she looked at Regulus, he seemed confused.  
  
Ali frowned, ‘No, Black. It was an accident. You don’t get in trouble for accidents.’  
  
‘Yeah, no. Right. Of course not.’ Regulus shook his head and picked the letter from the Governors back up to examine it.  
  
As he was busying himself reading over the information again, Ali focused all of her attention on him. It was a little scary how much he looked like Sirius and also how little he resembled him. Regulus wasn’t quite as large as Sirius was. Sirius was taller, but also quite a lot thicker in a sense. His chest was broad and the various muscles on his body seemed to be much more defined. Regulus was much lither, it was almost as if he could disappear if no one was paying particular attention to him. The perfect build for a seeker.   
  
Even though there were very deliberate differences in their faces, like the fact that Sirius eyes could look like frosted glass in the right light, as pale and unforgiving as they were, and Regulus’s were more like bright blue lightning against a night sky. No matter the difference, Ali found she felt settled in Regulus’s presence this year. She hated to admit it, but she had come to realize she was trying to substitute the loss of Sirius’s closeness with anything she could get from Regulus.   
  
She hated it, because Regulus was a poor substitute for his brother. Sirius seeped with affection. Everything he did, he did with passion. Especially when it came to comforting her. She missed him so much. She would toss back and forth in restless sleep and wake from dreams of her mother and immediately tears would form in her eyes without Sirius there to tell her she was alright. It was a strange saying for him to adopt, telling her she was okay. But in the strangest way it comforted her immeasurably that someone else had control of her emotions enough that when he told her she was okay, she could believe it.  
  
As she watched Regulus sighing in the firelight, placing down the letter and pulling forward a spare bit of parchment to transcribe their reply, she smiled. She couldn’t understand the complexity of the Black family. It was a ridiculous entanglement of emotions and abuse. But this boy before her was blood related to someone she loved and cared so deeply for, that despite his actions this semester, which were definitely sinister and questionable, she knew she had to care for him.  
  
‘Do you have any plans for the holidays?’ She asked, feeling her emotional outburst from earlier completely leaving her now.  
  
Regulus looked up, a little disorientated, ‘Uh, just the usual sort, I suppose. Christmas at our home, with the family.’  
  
‘Do you get good presents?’ Ali frowned at her own question. She wasn’t sure why she asked it, but she had always been pretty terrible at small talk.  
  
Regulus let froth a little laugh. When he did so Ali leant in without realising. Whether elevated with anger or happiness, Regulus’s emotions were what made him similar to his brother and Ali was drawn to him more when they came forth.  
  
‘Yeah, I suppose. I mean, being an only child now.’ Regulus frowned at that almost as much as Ali had.  
  
‘You’re not an only child.’ Ali declared, getting a little sick of the way both Sirius and Regulus pretended like Sirius was an orphan.  
  
Regulus looked up at her, gauging her reaction. ‘ _I_  know that.’ His reply was quiet and laced with something Ali couldn’t put her finger on. She stared back at him for a long, silent moment. It wasn’t until Regulus looked away that the contact was broken.  
  
‘So, you want me to be more  _present_.’ Regulus stated, nodding, ‘anything else? So you don’t have another one of those outbursts?’ He was joking with her again.   
  
Ali shook her head. Regulus Black was like an ever-lasting, backtracking, layered puzzle she needed to solve. She wasn’t overly certain why Dumbledore had assigned her with watching Regulus. His friends, yes. Barty Crouch and Rabastan Lestrange were menaces to the student body. They  _needed_  watching. But Regulus Black was just odd. He seemed like he wasn’t quite sure why he did anything he did. He was lost and confused. He needed-  
  
Something snapped in Ali’s head. Regulus Black needed  _guidance_. He needed someone to point him in the right direction. He  _was_  lost and confused. He seemed to flail back and forth between joking and laughing with her, then turning his nose up at her because of his  _friends_. Ali’s eyes grew larger as she thought about it.   
  
Regulus was calmest when he was away from Barty and Rabastan. Monday’s were always the worst days, when he’d spent two unbroken days with them. He was influenced by them. And maybe that influence wasn’t what he needed. Maybe he needed a better influence and Dumbledore thought she was that influence? Thoughts were diving back and forth in her mind until Regulus raised his voice.  
  
‘Adams!’   
  
‘What?’ Ali looked up, perplexed.  
  
‘I said do you want to deal with this tomorrow? It’s getting pretty late.’   
  
Ali looked around briefly trying to remember what he was talking about, ‘yes. Yes! I think, yes.’ She nodded, ‘we need- we need to be meeting, much more often.’  
  
‘What?’  
  
‘All the time. Weekends, too. We need to… meet, every…day?’ Ali sounded less than convincing and when she looked at Regulus he was smiling. It was one of those rare smiles that boarded on polite, but also had a sense of frankness to it.  
  
‘Everyday?’ He was definitely amused.  
  
‘Everyday. It’s becoming increasingly obvious to me that I need to… tutor you.’ She was coming up with it as she went and it was blindingly apparent on her face.  
  
‘Tutor me?’ Regulus stood up, sorting the letters on the desk into piles.  
  
‘Yes,’ Ali nodded, standing along with him. ‘Your grades… they’re… abysmal.’ She continued nodding, shutting her eyes.  
  
‘My grades aren’t  _that_  bad.’ Regulus replied, the closeness of his voice shocking her. When she opened her eyes, he was inches from her and Ali shifted back a little.  
  
‘Uh, well, they could be better.’ Ali gave him a trying look, as she knew the statement was true. Regulus’s grades were never exceedingly great. He was slightly above average, at best.   
  
A cunning smirk started to grow on his lips as he looked down at her, ‘could they?’ as he asked this, he reached passed her, leaning into her enough that Ali felt the need to inch backwards, as he grabbed his bag from the desk behind them and pulled it over his shoulder.  
  
‘All right. School me, Adams.’ The way he looked at her after that sentence reminded her so much of Sirius she was rendered temporarily mute. Regulus just laughed at her, shaking his head and moving off towards the exit.  
  
‘T-tomorrow!’ Ali shouted at him as he opened the door to leave, ‘be here tomorrow, after classes!’  
  
Regulus looked back over his shoulder with a grin, only laughing at her before leaving the office door open and walking out into the dark expanse of the fifth floor and disappearing. She wasn’t really sure if that was him agreeing to her terms and she shrunk back down into her seat, cursing her lack of social charm.   
  
She groaned, grabbing her own bag and shoving two of her textbooks inside it to read over back in her dorm. As she walked back to Gryffindor tower she went over her revelation in her head. She was sure of it. Dumbledore was a cryptic guy, but this had to be what he meant. Keep an eye on them, make sure they weren’t dabbling in anything too dark, and give help where help was needed. Regulus needed help.   
  
He so often looked like he was in pain, battling things beyond his years. He grew up in an abusive home, just like Sirius. Problem was, he was still trapped there. If Ali couldn’t do anything else to help the Order, the least she could do was help Regulus Black. Just like her mother had saved those muggle children from death, she could save Regulus somehow.   
  
She felt a little more on track as she went over it in her head and gave the fat lady the password, stepping inside the common room. She walked by all the students still talking amongst themselves and went straight upstairs. When she entered her dorm room, she was met with silence and she looked around once she’d shut the door.  
  
‘Oh, hey.’ She said to Anna, who seemed to be the only one in the dorm.   
  
‘Hey.’ Anna whispered from where she sat, cross-legged on her bed.  
  
‘Where’s your entourage?’ There was still a thick wall between the two of them and this school year had been spent mostly the same way as the last. With a varying degree of silence from both sides. Anna’s venomous comments had definitely died off since Ali had used her as a punching bag at the end of the previous school year.  
  
‘Emily was crying. So tweddle dee and tweedle dum took her down to the bathrooms to like, clean her up or something.’ Anna shrugged. Ali wasn’t quite sure was tweedle dee and tweedle dum meant, but she decided it wasn’t what she should have been focusing on.   
  
‘Why was she crying?’ Ali asked, chucking her bag onto her bed and pulling her robes off.   
  
‘She won’t  _tell_  us.’ Anna rolled her eyes, lying down and sighing.  
  
‘Riveting.’ Ali replied, pulling her school uniform off and replacing it with pyjama’s. When she was dressed she realized Anna was watching her still, from her position, front-down on her bed.  
  
‘Can I ask you a question?’ Anna didn’t seem in the least bit shy about having just watched her change.  
  
Ali sighed, ‘Sure. Why not?’  
  
‘How do you do it?’  
  
‘Do what?’ She spurred her on, putting her wand down on the nightstand and getting into her bed.  
  
‘Have guys  _all over you_. I mean, I get it, you’re pretty fit. But you’re like, totally weird. I was under the impression that guys went for the pretty, stupid girls. Like, a guy doesn’t want someone  _smarter_  than they are. Which totally makes sense because it seems like Emily is crying over a guy right now and she’s like, the dumbest person I know. But then like, you don’t make any sense.’  
  
Ali sat stationary in her bed, cross-legged, under the covers, staring at Anna who was still front-down, with her arm propping her head up, watching her unblinkingly.  
  
‘You’re like, the smartest girl in the school. Or the nerdiest, at least. And I can’t get through a fucking  _day_  without having to listen to some stupid moron dribbling over the length of your skirt, or about your snappy attitude this year and how they want to corner you and make you forget about Sirius Black and coerce the Head Girl into being the “ _head_  girl” if you know what I mean?  
  
               ‘So I just want to know, how do you do it?’ Anna just continued to stare at her impassively, like she was asking the simplest and least confronting question. Ali was gob smacked.   
  
‘ _Who_  is saying that about me?’   
  
‘Do you think it’s like, a taboo kind of thing? Because you’re so clearly  _never_  going to get with any of them and like so  _clearly_  have never had sex? They want to like, ruin you or something? Because I feel like that makes more sense than them enjoying your vast intellect.’ Anna slipped a finger between her lips and bit down on her nail.  
  
‘You’ve literally never spoken this much to me.’ Ali was unsure what to address first. There was so much she wanted to say and argue and correct, ‘um, if a boy leant up against you and said “school me, Adams” how would you take that?’ It just sort of slipped out. She had been thinking about it on her walk up, deliberating on asking Lily in a letter tomorrow. But with the strange conversation flowing between them it seemed fitting to ask.  
  
Anna outright laughed, ‘oh, he totally wants to go down on you.’   
  
‘What?’  
  
‘Who are you fooling around with?’  
  
‘I don’t- I don’t think that’s what he… was…’ Ali frowned. Surely she was wrong. What did “going down” on someone even mean?  
  
‘It was. Boys our age are very easy to read.’  
  
‘Is it  _that_  obvious that I haven’t had sex?’ Ali touched a hand to her chest wondering if it was something about the way she held herself the screamed virgin.   
  
Anna laughed loudly, sitting up now, ‘you may as well walk around holding a crucifix, wearing black and white.’  
  
‘Well, how do I make it  _less_  obvious?’   
  
Anna looked at her in the most condescending way imaginable, ‘have sex.’    
  
The two girls stared at each other for a moment, before bursting into laughter over Anna’s obvious advice. They didn’t really get a chance to say much more because Bianca and Marie came in rubbing Emily’s back after that and the strange conversation didn’t seem appropriate to continue.   
  
Ali settled back in her bed, going over the two odd encounters of her night with a textbook in her hand. Her dorm mates stayed up, chatting lightly about boys and Ali tuned in, listening from time to time. She noted the fact that Anna had a very rude and abrupt personality, but it seemed to make the other girls laugh.  


	69. Misconstrued encounters

Regulus sat across from Ali on the Hogwarts Express, staring at her with a subtle smirk. Ali had her chin rested in her hand as she watched the world flying by their window. The brick work of London came into view, signalling they were almost at their destination. Once the night-lit cityscape obstructed her view, she sighed and turned back to Regulus.  
  
‘What?’ She asked instinctively when she noticed he was staring.  
  
‘Nothing.’ Regulus shrugged and turned back to his work.  
  
‘What?’ Ali demanded a little more sternly, turning to face him better and weed out an answer.  
  
‘Do I have permission to see anyone over the holidays? Or are you enforcing a curfew for me then, also?’ Regulus reached out and picked his quill up from where it was resting in the ink pot, tapped it until the excess ink had trailed back inside and looked back at Ali.  
  
‘I- I don’t enforce a  _curfew_. You’re free to do whatever you want.’ Ali’s eyes went wide with worry as Regulus looked back down at his parchment, pulling it closer.  
  
‘Of course. As long as it involves you and “studying”. I mean, it’s so imperative that I also  _eat_  with you. For study purposes.’  
  
‘I quiz you during lunch! And- I don’t make you eat dinner with me.’ Ali frowned at being called out on her ridiculous behaviour over the last two weeks. She hadn’t been sure that Regulus would comply with her request to meet her in their office the night after she’d asked. But sure enough, that evening he appeared. He acted less than impressed, but he was still there.  
  
‘She says as she forces me to do our holiday homework  _before_ the holidays start.’ Regulus mumbled, but as Ali glared at him, she could see the faint grin pulling at his usually impassive lips.  
  
‘Shut up and keep listing ingredients for the draft of the living dead.’   
  
‘Feisty.’ Regulus replied in a low voice as he started to scratch out ingredients, just as she had ordered. Ali allowed herself to smile as she turned away from the boy before her and started stroking Snowball, who was curled up on the seat beside her.   
  
Over the past two weeks, she truly had kept Regulus hostage. She still wasn’t sure what kind of dark magic or trouble he and his friends were getting themselves into, but she was almost positive that the six hexed objects they had found around the school was the doing of Barty Crouch. Of course, these were just her personal assumptions and without any conclusive evidence, they were merely that; assumptions. Regulus seemed lighter, in a sense, since she had started taking up most of his time. He smiled more. He laughed at her and sometimes even with her.   
  
Helping Regulus wasn’t without its benefits. She felt a little more connected and a little less pathetic when he was around.  
  
But despite Regulus’s presence dulling the pain somewhat, Ali still pined for Sirius. And as the train began to slow her smile unknowingly widened. She turned away from the window and looked back down at their assortment of textbooks and school supplies while the thought of Sirius waiting for her filled her mind. She had written to her father explaining not to worry about her, because Sirius had insisted on coming to get her from the platform himself.   
  
‘If you continue to think immoral thoughts in another person’s presence you will be smote from above, Adams.’ Regulus expressed fluidly, without a hint of emotion.   
  
‘I’m not thinking  _immoral thoughts_.’ Ali’s smile shrivelled up instantaneously.   
  
‘Is he waiting for you on the platform? Are you going to run into his arms in slow motion and have him spin you around before kissing you?’ Regulus was looking at her, deadpanned. He was the most difficult person to read that Ali had ever met. Was he trying to rile her up? Was he jealous? Was he just poking harmless fun?   
  
‘You know, people that didn’t know you might think you’re a real git.’ Ali snatched her hand away from Snowball to fold her arms over her chest.  
  
‘People that don’t know me  _do_  think I’m a real git.’ Regulus replied matter-of-factly.  
  
‘You’re right. I definitely thought that about you before I got to know you.’ Ali nodded and started to pull her things towards her to shove into her bag. Snowball had now sat himself up to glare at her for stopping her rhythmic strokes.  
  
‘But you don’t think that now?’ Regulus’s voice sounded intrigued, but he turned his face down to begin collecting up his own effects.  
  
‘I think-’ Ali paused on her wording for a moment, pondering what she really thought, ‘I think you want people to  _think_  you are a git. But you are, in fact, not a git.’ She relayed, recalling the memory of Regulus announcing to the students at last night’s dinner that Hogsmeade trips had been cancelled, indefinitely, until further notice. She had shrunk down in her seat at the Gryffindor table while the students had all started calling out different reasons as to why it was a load of bollocks. But Regulus just took it, not looking her way once.  
  
‘Happy Christmas!’ A fifth year Ravenclaw prefect said to them in passing. Ali watched as Regulus returned the gesture with his usual courteous smile.   
  
He was growing on her. In the fleeting time that she had demanded his company, Regulus was chasing away her feelings of desolation. His politeness seemed to wane in the face of repeated contact and Ali hoped that the person that was shining through more and more was the real Regulus. He shared very brief information, but it was still nice to hear someone talk. Back before she had met Remus in the library, she could not fathom why people would want to share frivolous information with each other. But since she had lost all her friends, she truly enjoyed the random chatter that picked up between them.   
  
‘You coming? Or are you just going to stay here with your ferret?’ Regulus was standing before her now, offering her a hand.  
  
‘He’s not a ferret.’ She frowned, taking his hand and being aided onto her feet. She slipped her bag onto her shoulder and turned around to pick up Snowball hearing Regulus’s muffled laughter at her defensive reply.  
  
After they had all their things packed away, they left the prefects carriage together and headed down the train to a less crowded exit, manoeuvring through students and finding an unoccupied door to wait by. As the train jerked to a stop, both Ali and Regulus grabbed a hold of any part of the carriage they could, to stabilize themselves. The motion frightened Snowball and he struggled until Ali let him free. He fell perfectly on his little paws and made a distressed sound while looking up at Ali.  
  
‘Well it has coordination, at least.’ Regulus nodded, watching as Snowball brushed himself up against Ali’s legs. They heard the steam of the train let loose and then the door was opened from the other side and Snowball darted out and off into the crowd.  
  
Ali groaned, stepping out onto the platform first, followed closely by Regulus, ‘write to me over the holidays?’ She asked, turning back to him to say goodbye before she left to seek out her renege cat.   
  
‘Why?’ Regulus looked down at her as someone pushed by behind him.  
  
‘Because that’s what friends do _._  I want to know what you’ve been  _up to_.’ Ali nudged Regulus and shook her head at him where he stood, still holding onto the train. Regulus seemed, for a fleeting moment, a little jostled by her comment.   
  
‘I suppose.’ Regulus added with a shrug and the return of his usual, unaffected attitude.  
  
‘Well, have a good Christmas then.’ Ali smiled and from instinct she reached out and closed her arms around him in a hug, lifting up on her tiptoes to reach him better. It wasn’t her style in the least and a year or so ago it would have been completely unheard of her to do. But since having James Potter as a friend, it had begun to seem natural to depart with a hug.  
  
Regulus was pulled down by the hug and he hesitated for just a few seconds. He then let go of the train and pulled his other arm up to reciprocate the embrace. They lingered for just a moment, until Ali came to terms with the fact that she was hugging Regulus Black; not Peter, or James, or Sirius for that matter. She shrunk back after that.  
  
‘Ah, you, too.’ Regulus replied looking mildly stunned. Ali presented him with an awkward smile and a nod of agreement, then quickly turned to leave the situation behind.   
  
She directed her attention to the floor, trying to figure out where Snowball had run off to. It took her no time at all to locate the fluffy white cat. He was a metre or so off, rubbing his face into someone’s dark, jean-clad leg. When Ali looked up, Sirius was staring at her.   
  
The smile on her face instantly blossomed and she ran the distance between them and jumped on him. Sirius grabbed a hold of her straight away, but he seemed less than willing to return the hug and more like he was trying to stop them from falling over.  
  
‘Hi.’ Ali pulled back to beam up at him.   
  
‘Hey.’ He smiled down at her, but it wasn’t his usual smile. He seemed stunted and if anything he looked confused.  
  
‘I missed you.’ She flung her arms back around him, not clueing into his unusual behaviour. She was too excited to be in his presence to realise something was off, ‘I have had the  _worst_  term. I just want to stay in your arms  _forever_.’ She mumbled into his neck as she became limp, hanging off him for support, ‘Never let me go.’   
  
‘Ali,’ Sirius frowned grabbing a hold of her to keep her standing as students and their parents passed them by, ‘stand up, Ali.’   
  
‘No. I just feel like being useless for a moment.’ Ali let her head loll back, shutting her eyes and allowing herself to goof off in the presence of the one person she felt truly comfortable around.  
  
‘That’s great. But could you save it for later?’ Sirius’s tone was short. He was watching the surrounding crowd that were starting to stare. He tried to smile at a Slytherin student and her mother as they gave them a once over in passing while Ali groaned in reply to his request.  
  
‘Ali, can you stand up?’  
  
‘I just want to dissolve and sleep for the next two weeks, with you beside me and me  _not_  having to do a million and one things with your brother-’  
  
‘Ali,  _stand up_!’ Sirius demanded, securing his hands just below her underarms and placing her in a standing position before him.  
  
After that Ali snapped out of her minor lapse into comfortable familiarity and stood on her own, blinking back at her boyfriend’s less than accommodating attitude.  
  
‘Is something wrong?’ She asked as Sirius lowered his arms away from her.  
  
‘No.’ Sirius bit his lip.  
  
‘Okay,’ she paused, ‘I’m not big on the whole “picking up signals” thing. But I’m sort of cluing into a strange vibe here.’ She moved her hands back and forth between them to be sure he was aware of what she meant.  
  
‘Can we not talk about this right now?’ Sirius eyes flickered between her and the people around them and Ali noticed that Snowball was at her feet again, watching Sirius as if he were on guard.   
  
‘Have I done something wrong?’ Ali reached down, pulling the fluffy white cat up into her arms and securing her bag back on her shoulder.  
  
‘No.’  
  
‘Then why are you acting strange?’ She couldn’t quite comprehend the current state of events.  _She_  was happy to see Sirius. It had been three and a half months since they had seen each other in person.   
  
‘I’m not acting strange!’ He exasperated and that caught a lot of people’s attention. Sirius sighed, reaching out suddenly and grabbing a hold of Ali before disapparating them from the platform.    
  
When they appeared in the middle of the deserted dirt road just out the front of Ali’s house, Ali’s mind took a moment to catch up with her body. Snowball squealed and flew into the air. It almost looked like he was flying the way his feet stuck out in every which way. By the time he hit the ground he darted off towards the back entrance of the house and Ali doubled over trying to catch her breath and quell her need to vomit.  
  
It had been months since she had side-along apparated and she had forgotten how awful it was. Once her nausea subsided, she dropped her bag to the ground and raised her head to look up at Sirius. He looked apologetic.  
  
‘A little notice would have been nice.’ She said as the cold winter’s chill started to seep in through the thin jumper she wore for the train ride home.   
  
‘Sorry.’  
  
‘Snowball is never going to forgive you.’ She joked, hoping the weird atmosphere on the platform could just float away like a passing unfavourable smell, and she could go back to hugging her boyfriend like she so desperately wanted to.  
  
‘I’ll let him claw my jeans for an hour.’ Sirius offered a hand down to where Ali was still double-over and panting. She examined it for a moment before taking it and allowing Sirius to pull her into a hug, wrapping her up in his body-heat.  
  
‘I don’t know what I did, but I’m sorry.’ Ali offered up amidst the embrace.  
  
‘You didn’t do anything.’ Sirius murmured, hugging her properly and dragging a hand down over her curls to rest on her back, ‘I’m just- I’m sorry.’   
  
‘Let’s go inside.’ Ali said, teeth chattering slightly, as they broke the hug and she shifted her hand inside of his and they walked up to the front door to vacate the freezing temperatures. Once they were inside, the silence that met them was stagnant and odd.  
  
‘Where is everyone?’ Ali asked shutting the door once Sirius was further in.  
  
‘Your Dad is on a mission and Tucker is with your grandparents, I think.’ Sirius explained.  
  
‘We should probably go and get him then. I can only imagine what my Oma is doing to him…’ Ali’s eyes flared for a moment in quiet thought. Her poor brother was probably dealing with their insane grandmother more than was tolerable since their mother had passed.  
  
‘Or,’ Sirius stepped closer and pressed a kiss to her shoulder, ‘we could leave him there and we could… catch up.’ He suggested, placing another kiss to the crease of her neck and shoulder and Ali weighed out her options.  
  
‘You know, you’re right. He could benefit from learning how to deal with Oma for extended periods of time.’ Ali nodded as Sirius took her hand and led her off towards the sitting room.   
  
It took them seconds to fall down into the largest of the couches. Sirius with his back down against the cushions and Ali resting above him. She sunk down to meet his lips with the kiss she had been dreaming of giving him for weeks. It was anything but chaste.   
  
Ali wasn’t sure why Sirius had seemed conflicted just minutes before, but right now she couldn’t remember why she cared. Ali didn’t find personal contact necessary on many levels. But when she was with Sirius those traits flew out the window and she indulged her need to be as close to Sirius as was humanly possible. As their lips met over and over again, Ali could taste the salty flavour of Sirius’s skin. He smelt divine.   
  
‘Did you wash your hair? You smell like flowers.’ She smiled down at him and a quirky grin appeared on his face.  
  
‘I might have raided the hair supplies Lily left at James’s house before I came to get you.’ Sirius admitted as the slightest touch of colour painted his pale cheeks.   
  
Ali dissolved into giggles as she straddled him and sat herself up atop him. Sirius propped himself up and silenced her laughter with another kiss. The humour was lost quite quickly after that as Ali wrapped her legs around his waist and moved her hands up into his florally scented hair, feeling that it was still a touch wet and incredibly soft.   
  
As Sirius started kissing his way down to her neck, his hands moved up from her hips and made to remove the jumper she was wearing. She allowed him to do so and as soon as she was free of it their lips met once more and any notion of the previous strange atmosphere was completely lost as they made up for lost time, barely breathing between kisses and letting their hands roam over each other’s bodies.   
  
Just as Sirius’s hands disappeared under the shirt Ali was wearing and settled over her chest they heard the front door opening.  
  
‘Yah-yah! Yah-yah! Yah- _yah_!’ Tucker’s voice echoed into the room and Ali launched off Sirius so quickly he sat frozen with his hands still floating in mid-air and his eyes still shut and lips fixed in the position of kissing her.   
  
‘There’s my little man!’ Ali cried as Tucker ran into the sitting room and jumped on his sister.  
  
‘Hiya, kids! Expected you might be home by this point!’ They heard Ali’s grandmother announce from the entrance and that’s when Sirius sighed and fell back against the arm of the couch, defeated.   
  
*  
  
As the holidays were coming to an end, Ali was happily catching up with everyone at the Potter’s house. James implored them to gather there as often as possible, as guests kept his mother happy.   
  
‘So he talks to you? Like actually talks to you?’ Peter asked Ali as they sat out in the garden with a heating charm carefully placed around the gazebo to keep the December chill out.   
  
‘Of course he talks to me, Peter. How else would we get any work done?’  Ali frowned over at him from where they were settled on large cushions on the gazebo floor. Sirius and Marlene had taken up one of the two comfortable deck settees and James and Remus were occupying the other.  
  
‘Is that what you call it these days? Work?’ James teased while tossing a small golden replica of a snitch into the air and catching it again.  
  
‘Shut up, Prongs.’ Sirius snapped. He was going over a map of the quidditch pitch he and the others were supposed to be guarding tomorrow night on New Year’s Eve.   
  
‘I just find it odd. I mean he never spoke to any of us. Thought we were “riff raff”. I mean, he barely speaks to Padfoot.’ Peter explained.  
  
As his nickname came up, Ali flashed a glance at Sirius while Peter continued. She had noticed Sirius’s temper over the holidays making a much more prominent appearance than was usual. But Sirius wasn’t paying them much attention as he scanned over the map. Marlene was watching him from where she was seated on the opposite end of the spacious piece of outdoor furniture. She looked down at Ali and shrugged.   
  
‘You lot  _were_  riff raff.’ Ali continued, looking back at Peter with a matter-of-fact expression.  
  
‘No, we were entertaining. I bet that school is as boring as Snivellus’ hair care regime now that we’ve left.’ James spoke up, tossing the little golden ball towards Peter for him to catch. Peter panicked from the surprise throw and knocked the ball off course. It rolled away, plonking down the few stairs and out of the confines of the gazebo.  
  
‘You’re actually pathetic sometimes, Wormtail.’ Sirius snarled, rolling his eyes then looking back down at the map. Peter looked downtrodden by both the show of clumsiness and Sirius’s words. Seeing his dejected face was Ali’s last straw.   
  
‘Honestly, what is your  _problem_? You’ve been a sullen git for the entire break.’ As she said this, she pushed herself up onto her feet and stomped off to find the ball for Peter and James.  
  
No reply came as she located the little golden orb at the base of the gazebo, resting in one of the garden beds. She stomped right back into the white lattice haven and lobbed the ball right at Sirius’s head.  
  
‘Ow! What the fuck was that for!?’ Sirius finally tore himself away from the map to look at her, rubbing the side of his head where he had taken the blow.  
  
‘It’s for being rude to Peter. Apologise.’ Ali stood her ground, her hands coming up to rest on her hips as she glared back at Sirius. There was a thick silence that settled around them as the couple held their ground against each other, neither one willing to yield.   
  
James and Remus were side by side, eyes on Sirius. Marlene was looking between the two of them. Peter was on the floor, looking concerned while fidgeting with his hands. No one spoke and the silence became almost unbearable.   
  
‘Apologise!’ Ali repeated and that’s when Sirius took a stand so quickly it made her flinch.  
  
‘Why do you care?!’ He threw back.  
  
‘Because you’re being rude and I’m getting sick of it! You were sulking all of Christmas, you’ve had a scowl on your face for the last week; you keep mumbling things under your breath. If there’s something bothering you,  _say so_. Stop taking it out on everyone around you!’  
  
The remaining occupants of the circle were all looking sufficiently uncomfortable. Remus had glanced towards Marlene at least a dozen times and James seemed to be looking back towards the house where Lily was inside with his mother.  
  
‘You want to know what’s bothering me?’ Sirius advanced until he was directly in front of Ali, standing over her. Ali didn’t shy away however and just folded her arms over her chest before nodding, ‘You! You’re bothering me! You and your constant fucking complaining about school! If I hear one more thing about Head duties I’m going to curse someone!’  
  
‘Sirius, mate. Maybe you need to calm down-’ James tried to interrupt, getting to his feet as the tension mounted. But the damage had already been done. His words had slapped Ali so hard in the face, her demeanour melted down from enraged to wounded within seconds. Her arms dropped by her sides and she watched on helplessly as Sirius pushed by her to leave.  
  
‘Don’t worry about it. I’m leaving.’ He said, then disappeared so quickly, no one was able to argue with him to stay.   
  
Once he was gone, no one spoke, or moved. Everyone seemed frozen by the radical and upsetting chain of events that had just unfolded within seconds. Ali was in shock as she stared off at the point Sirius had last occupied before disapparating. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her mouth was slightly agape and she felt tears welling in her eyes.  
  
‘Ali?’ The proximity of the voice made her jump and she whirled around to come face to face with Peter.  
  
‘I might go and check on him,’ James said in the background, ‘can you let Lily know where I went?’  
  
‘Sure.’ She heard Remus reply.  
  
‘What- what did I do?’ Ali looked back vulnerably at Peter who took one of her hands in his own.  
  
‘Hey, no, I don’t think this has anything to do with you.’ Marlene came to stand by Peter and placed a hand on her shoulder.  
  
‘But he just said this was my fault?’ Ali questioned. She was wildly confused. The first day she had seen Sirius on the platform, something seemed off. He wasn’t his normal self. But that faded away quickly enough that she disregarded it as just being an off day. But then the same thing happened two days later. He snapped at her while she was telling him about her term and after that he was grumpy for the rest of the day.  
  
Although he was moody, Ali tried to overlook it. She was so happy to just be around him again, she didn’t want to spoil the limited time she had with arguing. Merlin knew she had her fair share of moody days. But after his snappy behaviour continued, she thought on it for a night and decided to ask him what was wrong the following day. The following day just so happened to be Christmas, however, and in the morning Sirius came over presented her with a bracelet so beautiful she completely forgot about his off manner and they spent most of the morning snogging on her bed. (Or at least until Tucker found out Ali was awake and Sirius was over.) But then, around lunch time when Ali’s grandparents came over and started talking to Ali about school, Sirius snapped again and spent the rest of the afternoon in a foul mood until he left to join James at his house.  
  
After Christmas, Ali’s patience with Sirius’s snappy retorts was wearing thin. Today was her breaking point, but she wasn’t at all prepared for Sirius’s reply.  
  
‘I think he’s just stressed about all of the Order stuff he’s been doing. He been taking on more missions and patrols than any of us.’ Marlene explained, rubbing her shoulder therapeutically while Peter gripped her hand tighter within his.  
  
Ali’s heart was still pounding in her chest. She could feel a tear about to escape from her lid even though she wasn’t quite crying. It was almost as if it was a response on her body’s behalf. She wasn’t upset so much as she was confused.  
  
‘Whoa, what’s going on?’ Lily’s voice came from behind them. Remus had gone to get her from inside and they entered the warmth of the gazebo and Lily went straight for Ali while Marlene and Peter both backed off.  
  
‘Sirius just flipped out and started shouting at her.’ Peter voiced as Lily kept her eyes set on Ali.  
  
‘Hey, dinner is almost ready, do you guys want to go in?’ Lily turned around, smiling at the other three lingering figures. Marlene nodded and Remus came around to put his arms over her but Marlene shrugged out of it absentmindedly and left the gazebo first.  
  
Remus pulled his arms up to scratch the back of his neck while exhaling deeply, then followed off behind her.   
  
‘Thanks for sticking up for me.’ Peter murmured, staying put with them while Lily led Ali over to one of the settees and sat her down.  
  
‘Yeah,’ Ali replied with a furrowed brow, ‘Of course.’ She then started to worry her lip while Lily sat across from her and Peter loitered nearby them, ‘I don’t know what I did? I mean, I know I’m a little overbearing. But- I didn’t think he had a problem with me talking about school? I didn’t think he had a problem with  _me_?’  
  
‘He’s been in a really foul mood lately, Ali. I don’t think this is your fault. Something’s just bugging him and he’s sulking.’ Lily offered, nodding her head reassuringly.  
  
‘That’s what I said to him. Then he told me that  _I_  was bugging him.’ Ali blinked and a tear fell, but her eyes were already drying.  
  
‘Oh.’ Lily looked over at Peter and they were both silent for a moment, ‘well. Don’t dwell on it. He’s probably just grumpy and he’ll get over it and come and apologise.’  
  
‘Is that what happens? He’ll come back?’ Ali asked feeling her heart rate pick back up. The thought of not seeing Sirius straight away was upsetting her now.  
  
‘Of course he will. This is just a little fight. Don’t worry about it too much. James will go and talk some sense into him and he’ll probably come by and see you tomorrow.’ Lily continued to nod her head in reassurance, smiling to signify that everything would be fine.  
  
‘But… what if he doesn’t come by tomorrow?’ Ali’s brain started turning the idea over. She had never had a fight with Sirius like this. They had had their fair share of arguments, no doubt about it. But it had always been at school when they were bound to run into each other at some point. And those feuds had always lasted quite a long time.  
  
‘Well, I mean, he does like to sulk. But he’ll get over himself in a couple of days. Maximum.’  
  
‘But I go back to school the day after tomorrow.’ Ali’s breathing deepened and she started biting her lip again. She couldn’t handle the idea of going back to school without talking to Sirius. As her mind played with the topic her eyes started to water again and her deep breathing began to catch.  
  
Lily wrapped her arms around her, seeing her emotions building. She rubbed her back soothingly as Ali rested against the redhead, feeling her resolve slipping.  
  
‘Why don’t you come in and we can have some dinner?’ Lily suggested after a little while.  
  
‘No.’ Ali sat back up on her own and wiped her face with her sleeve, ‘would it be okay if one of you took me home? I think I just want to be alone.’ She admitted truthfully.  
  
‘I’ll take you.’ Peter spoke up and the two girls looked over to him.  
  
‘Thanks, Peter.’ Ali said, getting to her feet with Lily.   
  
‘Get some sleep. It will all seem silly tomorrow, I promise.’ Lily soothed, giving Ali one final hug. Peter then took her left hand in his right one and disapparated them from within the gazebo. They reappeared close to Ali’s home, but a fair amount further out than Sirius usually took them.  
  
‘Sorry. I’m not always spot on with the landing.’ Peter admitted, realising where they were.  
  
Ali smiled reluctantly, ‘that’s all right. You don’t have to walk me, go back and eat with the others.’   
  
‘Uh,’ Peter deliberated, as Ali dropped his hand from hers, ‘If you want… I know you said you wanted to be alone. But sometimes when I say that, I don’t really want to be alone. So if you wanted… I could come in with you? We don’t have to talk. But sometimes it’s nice to just have company.’ Peter spoke down at his hands, watching his fidgeting thumbs.  
  
‘Yeah,’ Ali wiped her eye, ‘sure, that sounds nice.’ 


	70. Bodmin Moor Millennium

Sirius and Remus were back to back, at their assigned quadrant of the massive quidditch stadium that was Bodmin Moor Millennium. They stood watching out over the patrons flooding in through the south-east entrance of the large establishment. All eight members of the assembled team were clad in matching “inconspicuous” cloaks (Mad-Eyes idea), paired up, and set to guard each of the four entrances. Sirius had a mean scowl fixed on his face while Remus looked as if he hadn’t slept the previous night.   
  
The match was a New Year’s Eve special event, set up for the winners of the previous quidditch season; The Ballycastle Bats and Montrose Magpies. The crowd the event had attracted was even larger than they had previously anticipated. Dumbledore seemed to have come by some information that the event was being targeted, but there was no more information to go by and so they waited.  
  
‘So yesterday.’ Remus started, yawning and covering his mouth with his wand-free hand.   
  
‘I don’t want to talk about it.’ Sirius snapped, keeping his eyes peeled and assessing as many people passing by as he could. They were all keenly aware of the attire Voldemort’s followers chose to don.   
  
‘Of course. Because discussing anything about you is off limits.’ Remus rolled his eyes as they moved in sync to continue observing the crowd as a unit.  
  
‘What’s up your arse? Full moon was two weeks ago.’ Sirius raised a brow, glancing over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of Remus’s face.  
  
Remus sighed, ‘Sorry. Late night.’   
  
‘Yeah?’ Sirius grinned, gripping his wand where he held it down by his thigh as he turned to face Remus properly.  
  
‘Shut up. I didn’t mean like that.’ Remus replied still scanning over the passing witches and wizards and avoiding Sirius’s smirk. Each attendee was dressed as loudly as the next in their selected team colours and many were sloshing drinks around, chatting loudly and filling the space with an excited buzzing.  
  
‘But it  _is_  like that. Isn’t it, you old wolf, you.’ Sirius nudged Remus as he turned back around into their formation once again. A passing wizard carrying quidditch memorabilia brushed by them calling out what he was selling and wearing a bulk of it, making him look rather abused. Which was saying something with how odd the rest of the crowd looked.   
  
‘So Wormtail was sick, was it?’ Sirius’s smirk at his insinuation towards Remus’s love life died off as he mentioned the missing member of their party.  
  
‘Yeah. Sick.’ Remus repeated. Everyone was quite sure Peter had been lying, ‘Lucky Marlene could cover for him.’   
  
‘Mm. How is that?’ Sirius mumbled while catching a glimpse of someone suspicious.  
  
‘Oh, so we can talk about me, but not about you?’ Remus said, looking over his shoulder and realising Sirius had caught sight of something. He turned so they were shoulder to shoulder and watched the figure alongside him.  
  
‘Or we could talk about nothing at all?’ Sirius suggested when the figure they were eyeing off removed the hood of their cloak as they located their friends and hugged one of them happily, signally they were certainly not a Death Eater.  
  
‘You’re charming tonight. What a spectacular way to welcome in nineteen seventy nine. With a brooding dog.’ Remus sighed, coming to terms with the night he was in for.   
  
‘Hey, you could have paired up with your “girlfriend” but it’s funny that she jumped at the chance of pairing up with  _Mundungus_  over you.’ Sirius gave off a humourless little laugh at the end of his sentence. Remus visibly deflated, dropping his guard and turning his attention towards the ground.   
  
Sirius noticed the shift in his stance and turned to look over his shoulder at his friend. Seeing the limp way in which Remus now held himself, Sirius felt a shot of guilt pulsate through him. He pushed his lips into a line and rolled his eyes at his own cruelty. He was just in such a  _mood_  lately.  
  
Sirius cleared his throat, ‘Hey. Should we do a quick search of the grounds?’ Remus raised his head to look at him and nodded, faking a smile.   
  
The two boys pulled the hoods of their cloaks back up and pushed against the flow of the crowd entering the stadium and out towards the grounds. Outside of the stadium there was a large carnival type of atmosphere operating. Although it was a dark time of history, the wizarding community could not pass up the opportunity to throw a party. There were charmed rides in operation, spread out around the perimeters of the stadium. One attraction was a wizard that had transfigured a horse into a small dragon was offering rides to children. Another was a spell aiming contest where the prize was the newest edition cleansweep broomstick.  
  
The crowds were happy. It wasn’t often that people ventured out due to the escalating amounts of attacks and disappearance and… deaths. It was a wonder that so many had turned up considering. The ministry couldn’t afford to delegate many of their Auror’s to a sporting event such as this. There were only four stationed on the scene, not including Frank and Alice Longbottom, who were among the Order’s party. Getting the four that were stationed there now had been the work of Mad-Eye and Christian.   
  
Remus and Sirius trawled the area, keeping an eye out for anything that raised concern. They chatted about unrelated things that filled the silence. Who would win the match? A particular wizard’s style of robes. Whether or not any Death Eaters would turn up. Frank Longbottom’s atrocious clothing style. Whether or not Peter was actually sick? They both agreed against it. Everything and anything that didn’t pertain to either of their love lives. Because it was a sore spot for them both.   
  
As the night ticked on and the match started, Remus and Sirius moved back inside the stadium, keeping to their area. While the match was underway they found the open spaces practically empty which made it a lot easier to patrol. At one point they ran into Frank and James and chatted to them for a while, standing at the bottom of the stands that led out to the pitch, watching the match the best they could.  
  
‘There’s literally nothing going on.’ Sirius breathed, watching as one of the players for the Ballycastle Bats scored a goal.  
  
‘Are you  _kidding_? This game is terrific! It’s going to be a long one, that’s for sure.’ James enthused, not being able to tear himself away from the match.  
  
Frank laughed, ‘it’s a good thing nothing suspicious is happening. Because this one wouldn’t notice until the players started to flee.’  
  
‘The players wouldn’t flee because of an attack! They’re professionals, Longbottom.’ James corrected and Remus and Frank laughed at him.  
  
Sirius’s mind was elsewhere. While the danger levels were low, his thoughts drifted back to the happenings of yesterday. He didn’t want to discuss it. He didn’t even want to think about it. But he couldn’t help himself. He knew he shouldn’t have shouted at Ali the way he had. But he couldn’t get the hug he had witnessed her give to his little brother out of his head.  
  
His baby brother who barely spoke to him and his girlfriend who apparently hated close personal contact,  _hugging_. Just the thought of it made him clench his jaw. It made him so angry, but he couldn’t comprehend why? It was just a hug. At first he tried to forget it, but then Ali wouldn’t stop talking about him the  _entire two weeks_. Everything came back to Regulus. “Regulus is a lazy oaf, he makes me do  _everything_.” “Regulus is so frustrating the way he flicks backwards and forwards between liking me and loathing me.” “Regulus makes the slyest comments with the most cavalier tone, it’s infuriating!”  
  
It sounded as if she hated him. But Sirius couldn’t help but remember a time when he thought Ali had hated him and then all of a sudden she was snogging him in a corridor. She would not  _shut up_  about his brother and it struck a nerve. Because Sirius didn’t know if he could handle another person realising he wasn’t good enough and choosing Regulus to step up into his place.   
  
He closed his wand free hand into a fist by his side and his arm started shaking from the tension as his anger escalated. He couldn’t rationalise his feelings. He was just  _angry_.  
  
Then James cried out in victory, hollering and whooping after someone on the pitch scored a particularly difficult goal.  
  
‘I think we’re in for a long night, lads.’ Frank spoke while entranced by what was happening above them. The crowds were all screaming their approval and dismay collectively. Sirius shook his head of his dark thoughts and tried to zone back into Order mode.   
  
‘There he goes!’ They heard bellowed from above and when they looked up, James quickly raised his wand  _just_  in time to levitate a wizard that had fallen drunkenly from the stands above.  
  
‘Nice save!’ Frank announced, rushing forward to grab the man as James lowered him down.  
  
‘Damn idiot made me miss that pass!’ James cried once the passed out man was safe and his friends above them were all cheering their slurred thanks. The excitement temporarily allowed Sirius to forget his troubles and he and Remus both decided they’d be better served walking around and making sure other patrons were okay. 

*

Frank Longbottom was right about a lot of things. But being right about the match being a long one was an understatement. Twenty-eight hours on and it was ten pm on New Year’s Day and everyone’s previous vigour and drunkenness was starting to wear thin.  
  
Sirius could feel his eyes burning. They wanted desperately to shut and stay that way. Some of the attendees had chosen to leave and come back when the main team players had subbed out to rest. They were the smarter half of the crowd. Others had decided it was too close of a call and they couldn’t handle missing the action. Those people were starting to show signs of weariness and fatigue.   
  
‘CATCH THE DAMN SNITCH YOU PATHETIC SOD!’ They had also taken to name calling when they thought the players were close enough to hear.  
  
‘My eyes are going to fall out of my head.’ Remus whimpered pitifully. Sirius turned to look at him from where he was resting up against the base of one of the stands.  
  
‘Yeah. You look terrible.’ Sirius affirmed turning back to watch the game. He knew Remus hadn’t gotten much sleep the previous night. This would have been torture.   
  
‘Believe me, you don’t look much better,’ Remus stared sidelong at him with a dead expression, ‘you should go.’  
  
‘What?’ Sirius tore himself away from the game to convey an expression of perplexity.  
  
‘You should go. See Ali. She goes back to school in the morning. Go and say sorry.’ Remus rubbed his eyes with his palms, his wand still secured in his left hand.   
  
‘Did I ask for your opinion?’ Sirius frowned.  
  
‘No. But- you don’t want to? You don’t want to smooth all of this over before she returns for another term?’ Remus looked so tired it was a wonder he hadn’t just sat down and curled into a ball to sleep on the floor.   
  
‘Not really. No.’ Sirius shrugged, turning back to the game again. He did so just in time to see one of the players hit with some kind of hex as the entire stadium burst into yelling and indignant cries of disbelief.  
  
‘Moony!’ Sirius snapped Remus out of his micro-sleep and sprinted towards the pitch. Sirius could hear Remus’s footfalls close behind him but he kept his eyes fixed on the player currently hurtling towards the ground of the pitch.  
  
It felt like the female chaser of the Ballycastle Bats was falling in slow motion as Sirius made it onto the grass and skidded to a halt, seeing what was unfolding before him. His breathing picked up with his heart rate as he watched hooded figures flooding the stadium. He held an arm out to stop Remus from getting any further than him and when he felt Remus’s chest collide with his forearm, he held it in place from the awe of the situation.  
  
‘How?’ Remus murmured in disbelief, ‘how are they materialising like that? There’s an anti-apparition charm on this stadium.’  
  
Sirius looked sideways at Remus, grey eyes connecting with brown, then they both turned out to scan the crowd. Across the field they could see James in the stands. Frank wasn’t far behind him.  
  
‘What’s he doing?’ Sirius asked, eyes flaring in worry. James looked like he was about to try something. He was signalling someone a little ways away. Sirius followed his line of vision and noted Lily and Alice getting into place.   
  
Sirius turned back to the centre of the pitch where no less than thirty cloaked figures were now residing, with the Ballycastle chaser suspended above them. They started to form a circle and what Sirius saw standing tall in the centre made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.  
  
‘Good  _evening_. And a happy new year to all.’  His voice was low. But Sirius had heard it once before and he knew exactly who it was, ‘No, don’t get up on my part. Take a seat.’ At the appearance of the Death Eaters the stadium had erupted into turmoil. People were screaming and Sirius could hear them running about in the stands. But as Voldemort’s final word left his mouth, he flicked his wand and almost like a shockwave from the tip of his wand, the entire stadium shook.  
  
Sirius snapped around to see all of the people running, suddenly falling to the ground. He looked back out at the pitch and saw that the four Auror’s stationed at the game were now running towards the Death Eaters, causing them to break ranks.  
  
‘This doesn’t have to be a blood bath!’ Voldemort continued, ignoring the screams resonating around them and echoing throughout the stadium. His Death Eaters were taking care of the advancing Auror’s and so Sirius tried to locate James and Frank again.   
  
The players of both teams were in a very bad situation as they continued to float overhead on their brooms. All their eyes were focused on the chaser, frozen just above Voldemort’s head. As Voldemort continued on with his proclamation, Sirius noticed one of the players of the Montrose Magpies getting dangerously close to the stands and that’s when Sirius saw a Death Eater charging straight for him.   
  
He finally dropped his arm away from Remus where they were both frozen watching the scene unfold and aimed his wand at the Death Eater.  
  
‘ _Stupefy_!’ Sirius managed to land the stunning spell and the Death Eater dropped to the floor. He and Remus split up with a nod of the head, knowing their only prerogative right now was to minimalize the causalities. This wasn’t their first run in with Death Eaters. It wasn’t even their second. Since Ali had gone back to school without him, Sirius had needed something to fill his time and watching Lily and James snogging all the time didn’t help. So he threw himself into Order missions, just the same way Remus had been before he and Marlene had gotten back together.  Remus had already been excellent at defence against the dark arts. But now Sirius was definitely on par.  
  
Sirius ran out and dropped down by the stunned Death Eaters side as Remus ran out, throwing a hex at another. The stadium was still filled with screams. Some of the Death Eaters had managed to bypass the Auror’s and were wreaking havoc on the patrons they could reach. Sirius aimed another spell at one drawing in on a mother and her son who had just made it down from the stands.  
  
‘ _Flipendo_!’ The Death Eater was instantly knocked back and smacked his head against the stand. The mother caught Sirius’s eyes. Sirius just nodded to her from where he sat on the floor next to the unconscious Death Eater. She mouthed a thank you, scooping up her boy and making a run for the exit.  
  
‘Wake up!’ Sirius turned back to the Death Eater, snatching up his wand and pulling off his mask. He didn’t know the man, but he had a motive, ‘wake up you filthy excuse for a wizard!’ But the Death Eater was still out cold.  
  
‘Join me in the fight for your kind!’ Voldemort’s voice echoed through the stadium, over the sounds of screaming and crying.   
  
Sirius looked back to see that the Montrose Magpie player that had been hovering close to the stands was no longer on his broom and the broom was merely hovering on its own close to the edge of the stand. That’s when Sirius witness James jumping out of the stands screaming ‘NOW!’ at the same time Sirius kicked a Death Eaters feet out from under him as he ran passed where Sirius was still trying to wake up one of his unconscious counterparts.  
  
Sirius watched with disbelieving eyes as James took to the broom, swooping down straight for Voldemort. Remus ran out to shield Sirius from an attacker coming up behind him and Sirius non-verbally disarmed a Death Eater advancing on Remus.  
  
They both turned back to see as Alice, Frank and Lily all aimed mirroring stunning spells for Voldemort. With a swoop of his wand arm, Voldemort managed to successfully deflect all three of them. But the lapse in concentration was what they were aiming for, because James collected up the Ballycastle chaser and darted off to the stands where Lily and Alice were waiting for him.  
  
Voldemort screeched a shrilling sound and aimed his wand for James. He didn’t look the slightest bit impressed at being outsmarted by a teenager. James dropped the chaser into Lily and Alice’s care and darted back off again, with Voldemort following him with his wand, shooting curses out behind him.   
  
‘Moony!’ Sirius cried, ‘hold him! Hold him!’ Remus flicked around and knelt down to Sirius trying to decipher what he was screaming.  
  
‘What? Why? Why?’ He was in the same amount of panic.  
  
‘Just fucking hold him! I need information from one of them!’ Before he could even finish explaining, Sirius scrambled up and ran for the centre of the pitch, not caring what happened to him. He just needed to save James.  
  
‘Kid!’ Someone stopped him in his tracks, pulling him back by his cloak, ‘No, you’ll be killed!’  
  
‘I have to save my friend!’ Sirius turned around ready to punch whoever was stopping him.  
  
It was one of the Auror’s. He only looked a little older than Sirius himself. He was a tall black wizard and a light sparkled off the gold hoop earring he had in his ear as a curse flew by, missing both of them.  
  
‘It’s okay, we’ve got this!’ He nodded to him, ‘help the civilians! Please! Get any of his followers you can!’ The wizard pleaded, using his hold on Sirius to thrust him back behind as he started off towards Voldemort. Sirius stood frozen for a moment, watching.   
  
James was still dodging Voldemort’s curses, flying around the stadium as erratically as he could. The distraction had enabled all of the other players to dismount in the stands and make their escape with the throngs of others. Sirius turned around and did as he was told. There was a Death Eater inches from him and with the proximity he didn’t have the time to raise his wand and instead pulled a fist back and smacked the Death Eater so hard in the mask it was wearing that it cracked as the figure fell down onto their backside.  
  
The mask snapped in two and fell to the ground beneath as Sirius watched on shaking his hand from the severe pain now shooting through it. When the hooded figure raised their face Sirius drew in a rattled breath and clenched his jaw from the sight. He and Regulus both drew their wands from where they stood and sat, respectively.   
  
‘You idiot.’ Sirius spat. Tears were forming in his tired eyes as he looked down his wand at his baby brother.  
  
Regulus didn’t reply. He looked tortured as he stared up at him, a bloody lip spilling down his chin. They both kept their wands aimed at one another, but neither looked ready to make any kind of movement. Their concentration was only broken by an angered cry from Voldemort. When they turned to see what had happened, he was throwing off the four Auror’s.  
  
Sirius snapped into action immediately, knowing there wasn’t much time. He dived down and scooped up the broken Death Eaters mask and pointed his wand at it, repairing it non-verbally.  
  
‘What are you doing?’ Regulus voice broke beside him and Sirius felt his heart being wrenched from his chest at his delicate words.  
  
‘Saving you from dying in Azkaban.’ Sirius shot him a glare before replacing his mask and grabbing a fistful of his cloak. He pulled him up to his feet.  
  
‘Why?’ Regulus’s voice sounded so helpless and lost.  
  
‘Because, you stupid,  _stupid_  idiot. We’re brothers. Regardless of how unfailingly  _stupid_  you are.’ Sirius glared at Regulus’s eyes behind the mask, ‘push me over and then get the fuck out of here.’  
  
‘Sirius-’ Regulus started as they heard the battle between Voldemort and the four Auror’s raging to a close behind them. They witnessed as a shot of green light lit up the pitch and Sirius turned back to Regulus.  
  
‘Now!’ Sirius shook him. Regulus hesitated for only a moment as Voldemort began to laugh, but then did as he was told and pushed Sirius to the ground and made a run for it. That’s when the Death Eaters, one by one, started vanishing. Sirius looked around from the ground and Regulus was gone. He searched desperately with his eyes for James and saw him standing with Lily and Alice and the revived Ballycastle chaser and his worry eased.   
  
‘Join the right side or suffer the consequences.’ The last sentence Voldemort chose to leave on was chilling and then he, too, vanished. Once he was gone, the screaming subsided and Sirius pushed himself up and ran back to where he left Remus.  
  
‘He’s waking up!’ Remus shouted as Sirius approached and fell to the floor beside the unknown Death Eater.  
  
‘Were you at the attack in London?!’ Sirius demanded, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking, ‘were you one of the Death Eaters at the attack over Easter!?’ Sirius was desperate. The Death Eater looked up at him as he came to and just started snickering.  
  
‘Answer me!’ Sirius raised his wand to the unshaven man’s face and he stopped his humorous outburst after that.  
  
‘Yeah. I was there.’ He spoke, eyeing the wand then looking up at Sirius above him.  
  
‘Who killed the healer? Who killed the healer protecting the muggle children?!’ Sirius jammed the wand right into his cheek and the Death Eater screwed up his face in anticipation of what he might do.  
  
‘How should I bloody know?’  
  
‘Tell me who killed the fucking healer or St Mungo’s won’t have a floor to cater to the injuries you’ll have after I’m through with you.’ The look in Sirius’s eyes after that must have conveyed something to the man because he swallowed hard.  
  
‘I don’t know him personally. Blishwick. His name’s Blishwick!’ He shouted as Sirius dug the wand in deeper. Sirius looked up at Remus who was hovering close by. Their eyes connected in the realisation that they now had a name of Kanika Adams killer. But it didn’t hit Remus quite as hard as it hit Sirius.  
  
Blishwick… he knew that name. He felt his heart freeze over for the third time that night. Because Blishwick was on his family tapestry back at Grimmauld Place.   
  
Remus got down beside him after that and used the  _incarcerous_  spell to bind the man’s hands and feet. Sirius looked around and the aftermath of the attack was starting to take shape. There were fires consuming parts of the stands. Most of the people had managed to get away... but some had not. Three of the four Auror’s were incarcerating a few left over Death Eaters, the same way he and Remus just had. But Sirius then realised why only three were standing.  
  
In the middle of the pitch lay a body. It was small, so it couldn’t have been the Auror he had run into. One of them had laid their life down to save the people of this stadium and Sirius felt a pang in his chest as he got to his feet and swallowed.   
  
‘Hey, thank god you two are safe.’ Sirius and Remus both turned to see Marlene running towards them, ‘Mundungus ran out as soon as the commotion started up. I just stood at the entrance trying to help control the crowd.’ She explained. Remus didn’t even speak as he bent down and enveloped her in a hug.  
  
Sirius watched them for a moment, seeing the awkward way Marlene returned the embrace. But he didn’t have time for their weird relationship dynamics. He needed to find James and Lily.   
  
‘Padfoot! Padfoot!’ He heard coming towards them and flicked around to see James charging at them. Sirius just opened his arms and welcomed the hug from his best friend as James leapt on him, ‘that was insane!’ James pulled him back, scanning over him for any injuries.  
  
‘You’re telling me! What the hell was that stunt with the broom?!’ Sirius enraged, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him.  
  
‘It was to save the girl!’ James justified as four more bodies congregated behind him. When James stepped aside, the young chaser of the Ballycastle Bats looked stunned and terrified. But she was safe. Unlike the figure lying dead in the pitch’s centre.  
  
‘Good work.’ Sirius forced a smile and pushed by James to wrap his arms around Lily, who hugged him back just as tightly.   
  
‘I’m just glad we’re all okay, even if Mundungus flew coup.’ Frank said, holding on tight to his wife in the background.   
  
‘I can’t believe all this. It’s just- It’s too horrible.’ The young chaser sniffled, still in a fair amount of shock.   
  
‘At least we managed to round up a few. The Auror’s will be taking them into custody tonight and with Barty Crouch’s new law, they’ll probably be thrown into Azkaban without a trial.’ James implored. Any good news they could get in the midst of what had just happened was needed.   
  
But at the mention of that, Sirius remembered seeing his little brothers face under that mask and his heart dropped. ‘Dammit.’ He swore under his breath, setting Lily free and covering his face with his hands.  
  
‘What is it?’ Lily asked first, but James and Remus huddled around soon after. Sirius looked around at them and knew he couldn’t say anything. If he wanted his brother safe, he had to stay silent.  
  
‘Nothing,’ Sirius lied and looked through them to the middle of the pitch where two of the Auror’s were now kneeling at their lifeless colleague’s side.   
  
‘We should help them round these guys up, then we need to get back and report to Moody.’ Remus spoke from behind Sirius as Sirius just stared at the dead Auror in the distance.

*

A week on and the New Year’s battle was still fresh in their minds. Sirius was sitting at James’s house with James and Lily, staring off into the distance while multiple things plagued his thoughts.  
  
Lily laughed, ‘it’s just funny.’  
  
‘It’s not funny you scoundrel!’ James replied as they wrestled around on James’s bed behind where Sirius was sitting at James’s desk.  
  
‘You look weird without them on!’ Lily was in a heated discussion with James about how he looked like a completely different person without glasses. So much so that she had taken to calling him Bill whenever he wasn’t wearing them.  
  
‘I look the same!’ James argued tackling her.  
  
‘Whatever you say, Bill.’ Lily giggled uncontrollably while James tried to regain his glasses from her.  
  
Then there was a tap at the window and all three of the rooms occupants turned to see a barn owl there, waiting to be let in. Sirius sighed.  
  
‘And here’s todays letter. Which he will just ignore. Again.’ Lily commentated in the background as Sirius got up to let the owl in. It flew in and settle on the desk, dropping the letter in its beak down then taking off out the window once more. James was whispering something to Lily as Sirius retook his seat and looked down at the handwriting that had scrawled out his name on the envelope.  
  
Underneath his name, Ali had now taken to writing “please read it”. But Sirius couldn’t handle reading her words right now. He hadn’t gone to see her before she returned to Hogwarts, because he was still angry and now there was an even bigger variable in the mix.   
  
Regulus was a Death Eater. And he couldn’t tell anyone. Not even Ali. Least of all Ali. He had overheard Dumbledore tasking her with keeping an eye on his brother. Ali would flip out if she knew. She would go straight to Dumbledore and tell him and then Regulus would be arrested and taken to Azkaban to waste away or worse… he couldn’t let that happen to his brother. Regulus might have been an idiot, but he would always be his brother.  
  
So he ignored her letters. And they came daily. He just didn’t know what to say. He was still irrationally angry with her for hugging Regulus on the platform. He knew it was irrational, but he couldn’t help the way he felt. So he shoved her letter into the front pocket of his grey hoodie and looked around at Lily and James.  
  
Lily had James’s glasses on and was squinting at Sirius to see him through the thick lenses. James was underneath her, head lolling back to watch him, also squinting to see him.   
  
‘You really need to reply to her.’ Lily voiced, reaching up to take the glasses off.  
  
‘I don’t want to talk about it.’ Sirius looked down, avoiding the ridicule he’d been subjected to all week.  
  
‘Why~’ James drew out, obviously trying to think of something to alleviate the tension, ‘-don’t we go for a drink! We never got to celebrate the New Year. It’s nineteen seventy nine! I think that calls for some butterbeers!’  
  
‘Three people died.’ Sirius shot a look at him and James’s enthusiasm dried up instantaneously.   
  
There was an awkward silence for a while until Lily spoke up, ‘well… I’m actually supposed to be catching up with Mary. I’ve barely seen her since we graduated with all this Order stuff. And her last letter didn’t sound too great. You guys could come? I think it would be nice for her to see some old faces.’   
  
Sirius looked back at the couple as they separated themselves and sat up on the bed. He was so all over the place in his head, maybe a noisy bar would help. Lily was watching him weigh it up and she cleared her throat to speak.   
  
‘We won’t mention Ali Adams from here on out. For the rest of the night.’ She held her hands up in surrender and Sirius bit his lip in guilt. He didn’t want his mood rubbing off on anyone else. He didn’t want people taking his side on this. He just wanted it to be unspoken while he tried to sort out his own emotions.  
  
‘Yeah. All right. Only if Moony and Blondie aren’t invited though. If I have to sit through another one of their awkward shows, I’m out.’ Sirius stood up, running a hand through his shoulder length hair and shaking his head in a dog like manner.   
  
‘Yeah, no, I’m on board for that.’ James exhaled loudly and Lily smacked him.   
  
‘They’re trying!’  
  
‘They need to give up. Clearly it’s never going to be the same.’ Sirius rolled his eyes. Maybe it was his mood… but he was very cynical lately. They then got ready in silence. Until James started attacking Lily with kisses and Sirius groaned and disapparated home to get a warmer jacket telling them to get their hormones under control in his absence.  
  
When he returned James and Lily were  _less_  dressed and out of breath. Sirius just sighed and smacked James upside the back of the head and told them to hurry up. He wasn’t in the mood for their cute, post-sex canoodling. By the time they got to the little muggle bar close by to where Mary lived, in Cardiff, Wales, they saw Mary sitting on her own at a table. She waved them down and they all took seats.  
  
‘Hiya boys. Wasn’t expecting you, too, Black.’ She smiled, but the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.  
  
Sirius took the seat closest to her, while Lily sat across from her and James offered to grab drinks.  
  
‘You’ll have to go with him Lils. If he asks for a butterbeer up there they’ll laugh at him.’ Mary warned, while Lily agreed and got up to follow James off to the bar.   
  
‘How’ve you been?’ Sirius asked looking casually sidelong at her, trying to read her body language.  
  
‘Yeah. Okay. I got a job at the ministry. They’re training me in the international magical office of law.’ She offered up a smile that betrayed her words.   
  
‘You seem thrilled.’ Sirius’s dark mood seemed to compliment Mary’s.  
  
Mary laughed humourlessly, ‘don’t get me wrong. It’s a great job. But-’ she shrugged, ‘well, at least it’s full on enough to keep me busy.’   
  
Sirius started to clue into why Mary’s usually bright smile, wasn’t so bright.  
  
‘How’s dopey?’ He knew asking would either cause her to start spilling her feelings, or she’d react the same way she had when he had last called her girlfriend that. It was the best way to figure out if he was on track with his assumptions.   
  
Mary didn’t corrected him. She just shrugged again and looked like she was trying to swallow. There was a small silence between them, until Mary spoke.  
  
‘Thanks.’ She started, ‘For not telling anyone. Thank you.’  
  
Now it was Sirius’s turn to shrug as they both watched James and Lily at the bar, poking and laughing at each other. James leaned in to kiss Lily and the bartender was growing weary of them. It was evident, even from a distance. Sirius shook his head.  
  
‘She dumped me.’ Mary’s voice cracked as she spoke the words. When Sirius turned to look at her, her mouth was pushed up into a frown and she was clearly trying to prevent herself from crying. She drew in a deep breath and looked up towards to roof.  
  
‘She wanted to tell people. And I didn’t. The secret got too much for her. So she ended it in a letter before Christmas.’ Sirius just watched on as Mary looked up and hugged an arm around herself, using the other one to wipe a stray tear away. She shrugged trying to allude indifference.  
  
‘I had to convince her that us dating in secret was okay. I pushed her into it. She was so confused at first.’ Mary coughed out a laugh, ‘I gave her some bloody erotic novel about secret lovers. She must have loved it because the book was destroyed when she returned it…’ Mary sighed.  
  
Sirius just sat back, watching on and listening to her. He figured he was probably the only one that knew about the two, seeing as even Lily was in the dark. And Lily was her best friend. It was pretty obvious Mary had been holding this in, because it took very little to get her started.   
  
‘I should have just told people,’ Mary sniffled, as another tear slid down over her cheek, ‘instead of always thinking about myself.’ She wiped her cheek and turned to smile at Sirius. Sirius sighed, seeing how broken she looked. Everywhere he turned there was misery and distress. He reached out and pulled Mary’s head down to rest on his shoulder and said nothing more. Mary didn’t speak for a while and just the slight jerking movements of her body signalled she was crying.  
  
Sirius watched James and Lily at the bar, laughing. James had spilled their drinks and was reaching into his pocket, clearly to grab his wand. Lily was arguing with him, but they couldn’t stay mad at each other. Sirius knew that best of all, because more often than not any argument they would have just turned into giggling and kissing. It was disturbing how in love they were.  
  
‘You’re lucky.’ Mary mumbled resting against his shoulder, watching James and Lily the same as Sirius, ‘you got over yourself quickly enough to keep Adams. You didn’t drag out the secret affair like it was a scandal.’  
  
‘I think it’s a bit of a different situation.’ Sirius admitted. That’s when Mary sat up and wiped her eyes again.  
  
‘It’s not. I’m a moron. I should have just announced it to anyone that would listen. Kissed her in front of a bunch on slimy Slytherin’s, just like you did. You and Adams are perfect together.’ Mary gave him a sincere smile, ‘she’s made you a better person. And you’ve calmed her down. You’re helping each other grow and it works. I just succeeded in making Emily feel like I was ashamed of her.’   
  
‘We’re not as perfect as you think.’ Sirius grabbed a napkin from the tabletop and handed it to her.  
  
‘Whatever problems you have, it won’t be hiding her from  _everyone you know_.’  
  
‘Macdonald. You’ll tell people when  _you’re_  ready. And I think that’s cool. If dopey couldn’t handle that, then you weren’t right for each other.’ Sirius simplified it as Mary cleaned herself up. James and Lily were on route back to the table now.  
  
‘But-’ Mary hesitated, looking into Sirius’s eyes, ‘I loved her.’   
  
The words ricocheted around in Sirius’s head for a long while as he stared back at Mary. James and Lily retook their seats and handed them both drinks, starting up a conversation. Lily was trying to find out why Mary looked like she was crying and James was joining in trying to defend that Mary looked fine.   
  
Sirius was quiet for most of the night as he drowned in his thoughts. He joined in on conversations enough that no one was questioning his emotional state. But he was just so  _conflicted_. By the time they all decided to go their separate ways, Sirius was happy to go back to his flat in London and fall face first into his mattress and get a good night’s sleep. Nineteen seventy nine was off to a  _roaring_  start.


	71. Many different admissions

Ali sat alone in her shared office, staring up at the ceiling, lost in thought. When she threw her head forwards to look down at her reply letter to Peter, she sighed. Peter had been so accommodating over the past two weeks. Since Sirius had yelled at her and left, she’d felt a weight form in the pit of her stomach and her appetite became non-existent. Peter had alleviated the pain a little. On New Year’s Eve, he had even told the others he was sick to keep her company with Tucker, because Christian was out on an Order mission. He really was a good friend. But writing to him wasn’t filling the void Sirius’s absence had created.   
  
She was just stuck in a vortex of remorse fuelled desire to somehow apologise for whatever it was she had said that upset Sirius. But she couldn’t pinpoint what it was she had done. And the silence was just causing her to become anxious and uneasy. She didn’t want to lose another loved one while on bad terms. It was a horrible thought process, but she was stuck going over and over it in her mind that not apologising to Sirius was somehow going to get him killed.   
  
The first couple of days into the fight she had shed tears. She was desperate to speak to Sirius, but she had no way to do so. She couldn’t yet apparate, he wouldn’t reply to her letters and now that she was back at Hogwarts she was back to being overloaded by NEWTs study and Head duties.   
  
She lent forwards and picked her quill back up to finish her reply to Peter. She pressed a finger to her temple due to the slight throb that was niggling at her from a stress induced headache. She looked down at the last part of Peter’s letter.  
  
 _\- I haven’t seen him. He’s just locked himself away the last week. Won’t even respond to Pro... James, so something is definitely wrong. Pads is a ‘suffer in silence’ kind of guy. I wouldn’t bother with the letters anymore. If he’s not responding, it’s probably just annoying him. Just give him time. He always softens up and gets over it. It will be okay._  
  
 _Don’t study so hard you break something!_  
  
 _Peter._  
  
“I wouldn’t bother with the letters anymore.” The sentence was glaring at her. She had sent out a letter once a day to Sirius, in the hopes he would explain to her what she had done and how she could fix it. She was going out of her mind. She had written more than one letter a day, but only allowed herself to send the most appropriate of them. Even she was getting sick of looking at the words “please tell me what I did” and “I really am sorry”. Perhaps Peter was right and maybe they weren’t helping.   
  
She scrawled out the end of her reply, thanking him and telling him to keep her updated with all the Order happenings before she discarded her quill again and rolled the letter up once the ink had dried.  
  
If the situation with Sirius wasn’t enough, Regulus was playing hot and cold with her again. Mainly  _cold_. She thought she was getting somewhere with the boy before the holidays. She thought, perhaps, they might even consider one another friends. But once she returned to Hogwarts, he was back to casual indifference and possibly even less accommodating than before. She couldn’t understand it. She looked around the office. Her empty, solemn office. A few years ago she would have been ecstatic for a quiet place of her own to study. Now the peace was just leaving too much room to dwell on everything that had gone wrong in her life over the past few weeks.   
  
Just as she had tensed her body thinking of Sirius again and tried to blink her dry, sleep deprived eyes back to some semblance of normality, there was a knock at her office door.   
  
‘Come in.’ She spoke loud enough to reach the other side of the door, but there was so little force and emotion to her words she wouldn’t have been surprised if they had knocked again. Luckily the knocker had good hearing and pushed the door open to reveal themselves.  
  
‘I’m aware that I’m probably the last person you want invading your fancy office, but I have some very real and informative gossip that I’m pretty sure you’re going to want to hear.’ Anna stood in the door way, still clinging to the handle as if she wasn’t sure she was permitted to be where she was.  
  
‘Uh,’ Ali blinked, ‘I never thought I’d be speaking these words, but your presences is actually welcome. You can come in.’ Ali pushed back from her desk, getting up from her chair, as it was seated facing the window up against Regulus’s desk and her back was to the doorway where Anna was standing. She walked away from the two desks and took a seat on the couch while Anna shut the office door behind her and sauntered over to take up a seat beside her.   
  
‘This place  _is_ fancy. I think it’s a bit wrong that you two get a couch, whereas we’ve usually got to fight for a spot on the floor in the common room.’ Anna took in the room, scanning over the desks and the bookshelves and plaques on the wall with all the previous Heads of Hogwarts names.   
  
Ali rolled her eyes, which progressed into a yawn, ‘I’m not really in the mood for gossip, Cox. If this is about boys, then I don’t want to hear it.’ Her words came out a little shorter than she anticipated, but it didn’t seem to deter her dorm mate.  
  
‘Okay. Well, it is about boys. But I’m, like, almost positive you want to hear about it. You and your bloody obsession with authority and the Black brothers. I’m just saying, this really seems like your area of expertise.’ Anna shrugged. She was playing it cool but Ali was already captivated, she really had no need to bait her with anything more than the words “Black brothers”.  
  
‘Spit it out, Cox.’ Ali sat forward, her hand delving into her robes to retrieve her wand.   
  
‘It’s numero duo.’ Anna explained, expression lighting up from the eagerness portrayed by Ali.  
  
‘What?’  
  
‘Number two? The second one? Isn’t that, like, a widespread saying?’ Anna shook her head and inched forwards, ‘Whatever. Anyway, so I was just on my way down to, uh, see some- yeah anyway. I was walking, right?’  
  
‘I get the concept.’ Ali supplied, with a limp regard.   
  
‘Yeah, well, so I’m down near the dungeons and I manage to slip back behind the wall I was coming around, when I hear these voices.’ Anna was in her element. Gossip was her most valued skill set and she could not have hidden the joy she was gaining from spilling a secret. She flipped her long hair out of her face and it made a ripple of blonde before whipping back into place behind her shoulder.  
  
‘So, I mean, how was I supposed to know they were having some  _deep_  conversation. It was out in the corridors  _anyway_  so I don’t feel bad about overhearing it. But Crouch and Lestrange were really giving it to Black. Like  _really_  hounding him.’  
  
Ali didn’t know why she was washed over with disappointment. It was obviously going to be Regulus that Anna was coming to her about. Sirius wasn’t at Hogwarts. Sirius wasn’t even on the grid. For all she knew, he could have fled the country without her knowing. Why did she even excite herself with the possibility that Anna was going to spill a secret that Sirius Black was in their dorm, awaiting her with open arms? Was she really losing it?  
  
‘Adams? Are you even listening to me?’ Anna’s voice filtered back to her and Ali drew in a breath, realising that she had slipped into a daze like sleep momentarily. She really was losing it.   
  
‘Sorry, sorry. What?’ Ali smacked both of her flat palms to her cheeks to try and ward away her sleepy behaviour. She hadn’t slept properly since the fight and it was really starting to affect her vigilance.  
  
‘I overheard them talking about those cursed objects. It’s them, Adams. They’re the ones leaving the hexed objects around for people to find. Well, at least I’m pretty sure Lestrange and Crouch are. They were being so cruel to Black. Shoving him and he was just sort of standing there, taking it. I almost felt bad for the guy. But…’ Anna stopped and puckered her lips in an unimpressed manner, ‘he can be totally rude, so whatever.’  
  
‘He’s not rude. You just have to get to know him.’ Ali corrected out of habit.   
  
‘Yeah, because that’s the most important thing to take away from what I just said.’ Anna was staring back at Ali like she had just told her that school work took precedence over boys or something else  _completely outrageous_.   
  
‘I know. I mean, I had a feeling it was them. But if I don’t catch them at it, there’s not really much I can do.’ Ali explained, realising she probably should have lead with that.   
  
‘What, so we just wait for them to get the really bad curses perfected and  _actually_  hurt someone? They’re targeting muggleborns.’  
  
‘Well, what does that matter to you? You’re not muggleborn.’ Ali felt her head lolling to the side from exhaustion.   
  
‘So? Doesn’t mean I want to sit back and wait for someone else to get hurt. Punish them or something!’ Anna’s words were short and lacked her usual lax conjunctions and it took Ali by surprise. This was the first time she was aware of that Anna Cox seemed concerned about someone that was not herself. It was a side Ali had never really seen before.   
  
Ali’s shock morphed seamlessly into a smile, ‘I’ve been monitoring them. Don’t worry, I’m not just sitting back and letting them free reign.’   
  
‘Oh.’ Anna pulled up short after that and looked down at her hands, ‘I guess, I should have known. You’re always on top of school related stuff.’ Anna sighed. Although she knew she would probably never be able to see eye to eye with the girl, due to the excess years of torment, she felt like she was growing into a better person. It just went to show Ali that everyone was capable of change.   
  
‘How’re you monitoring them? Do you have, like, first year spies? Or have you enchanted suits of armour? Or, oh my god! Are you and Regulus Black! Are you?’   
  
‘What?’ Ali shuffled back a little as Anna advanced on her, greedy for information, ‘are we what?’   
  
‘I mean, I’ve heard around the school that you’ve been forcing him to spend long nights in here with you. But I thought that was just Adams being Adams. Are you two, you know?’ Anna’s eyebrows rose up, threatening to disappear right off her face as Ali watched them. Ali was taking longer than usual to pick up on cues. Which was saying something. Her body was so run down from stress and lack of sleep she was starting to feel mentally challenged.   
  
Then it clicked, ‘No! Merlin, no! Why does everyone keep jumping to that conclusion?’ Ali was about ready to smack the next person that assumed she would so readily jump into the arms of another man, let alone her boyfriend’s  _brother_.   
  
‘Well,’ Anna sat back looking slightly disappointed, ‘that is how you and Sirius got together, right? We all saw you two together. In the common room, studying and practicing transfiguration. Then, next thing we all know, he’s snogging you on the train.’ Anna shrugged, ‘it’s not like it’s a crazy assumption.’   
  
As Anna finished her sentence, for what Ali recorded was  _definitely_  the first time, she realised how much sense the blonde’s conclusion made. It actually made  _a lot_  of sense. That  _was_  what led her and Sirius into a relationship. She hadn’t thought anything of their study sessions, but once Lily had alerted her to the fact that Sirius had feelings for her, it all just sort of happened.   
  
The studying led to kissing, which led to feelings and then exclusivity. It was almost as if something simultaneously imploded in her brain and she pulled her index and middle fingers up to her head to rub her temples as she groaned.  
  
‘Oh, you’re right.’ Ali admitted as finally the reason for Sirius’s temper tantrum started to settle in her mind.    
  
‘Uh, well, I won’t argue with that. But, are you all right?’ Anna asked with a hint of concern to her tone.  
  
‘Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.’ Ali felt her exhaustion taking over as she nodded and opened her eyes to look back at Anna.  
  
‘It’s just, you’re really flushed.’ Anna’s nose was pinched with disapproval.  
  
‘I’ll be okay. I just need to finish off these letters and go over a few things for next week. I think I just need some sleep.’ Ali got to her feet determine to finish the last of her tasks for the night so she could get back to Gryffindor tower and try to relax.  
  
‘Okay, well, I’ve done my part. Just, don’t get sick and like, cough on all of us or anything.’ Anna had gotten to her feet also and was hovering behind Ali.  
  
‘Yes, thank you for your concern.’ Ali rolled her eyes, facing towards her desk now.  
  
‘I’ll just see you back at the dorm then.’ Anna’s voice sounded distant and Ali waved a hand as a reply. When she took a seat back at her desk, she heard the door click shut behind her and she looked down at the letter she had been writing to Sirius that she no longer intended to send, thanks to Peter’s advice.  
  
Now that she thought about it, Sirius’s mood  _had_  been odd, but it seemed like every time he acted up or started to brood, was when she was mentioning school. And more importantly, what she was doing at school. Which almost  _always_  involved Regulus Black. He  _must_  have had some difficulty with the fact that she was spending so much time alone with Regulus.  
  
She felt a flare of anger at that. Like he couldn’t trust her? But it melted away as her head began to spin. She lifted a hand up to her cheek and realised she was almost  _radiating_  heat. Anna mustn’t have been joking when she said she looked off. Strangely enough though, despite the warmth coming off her skin, she began to shiver. It was mid-winter outside the castle walls and so the fire in her office was raging away. She pushed off from her desk and manoeuvred her way off the chair and onto the floor below.   
  
She pulled herself over to the rug before the fire and pulled her legs into her body, sitting before it. The heat it gave off put a stop to her shivers for the most part and she felt her eyes droop. Then without much thought on the matter, she curled up in what would usually be quite an uncomfortable position and shut her eyes. 

*

‘Adams? Hey?’ The words were niggling at her, but she tried to ignore them and allow her sleep to continue.  
  
‘Far out, you’re burning up. Hey, can you walk?’ Again the voice made her stir, ‘Adams? Hey, come on?’ Ali groaned in pain as aches coursed through her body at the disembodied voices touch.   
  
‘We should get you to the hospital wing, but, I don’t think I could carry you that far.’ Ali felt hands settling on her forehead and then trying to move her again. The pain that surged through her made her eyes flitter open.  
  
Regulus Black was hovering over her. Ali began to shiver as her consciousness came back to her. Shots of pain pulsated from where her shoulder and hips were digging into the stone underneath the rug. She was on the floor still.   
  
‘One of your dorm mates told me you never came up to bed,’ Regulus still stood over her, ‘looks like the house elves tried to help.’ A warm smile glided over his features as he looked down at her body. Ali looked around herself and realised she had a blanket covering her and a pillow under her head.  
  
‘What time is it?’ Her voice sounded so foreign to her.  
  
‘You’ve missed an entire day of classes.’ Regulus explained.  
  
‘ _No_.’ Ali whimpered, struggling to pull herself up into a sitting position. She heard Regulus chuckle. So his bad mood had subsided a little. Ali wondered if Regulus and Sirius knew how incredibly alike they could be?  
  
‘Come on, let’s get you to the hospital wing. You’ve got a really bad fever.’   
  
‘ _No_.’ Ali whimpered again, ‘I need to talk to Sirius.’ Her words were so soft and desperate. When she looked up at Regulus he was frozen. ‘He thinks I’m going to run off with you. I don’t want to run off with you.’ Ali shook her head as her fever induced delirium started speaking for her.  
  
‘Why- why would he think that?’ Regulus was still frozen.  
  
‘Because,’ Ali pulled the blanket closer around her as her teeth chattered, ‘because I talk about you. All the time. And he yelled at me. And now he won’t speak to me. And I just- I really love him. And I want Sirius. I just- I want  _Sirius_.’ Tears started to form in her dry and stinging eyes.  
  
‘All right. So he’s yelled at you. About me?’ Regulus prompted as he scooped under her body and lurched her up, exhaling as he lifted her up onto her feet. Ali cried out in pain, but Regulus just pulled one of her arms over his head and secured her in a position up against him.   
  
‘Everything  _hurts_.’  
  
‘Yeah, that usually happens when you’ve got a fever. Does he think we’re involved?’ Regulus asked while he helped Ali towards the door. There were tears falling from Ali’s eyes from a mixture of missing Sirius, being in a considerable amount of pain, and just generally not having a lot of control due to being quite sick.   
  
‘I don’t know. He’d be bloody stupid if he did.’ Ali spat, feeling her contempt rising and mixing in with her multitude of other overwhelming emotions.   
  
‘Well, not  _really_.’ Regulus mused, ‘We have been spending a heap of time together. I guess I could see where he was coming from.’ He helped Ali along down the long empty corridor from their office towards a barely used staircase that would take them out near the fourth floor landing.    
  
‘Shut up. I’ve barely seen you since we got back from the holidays.’ Ali tried to pull away from him but only succeeded in making them sway for a moment, before she rested most of her weight back onto him.   
  
‘That’s because,’ Regulus started, shuffling to get a better hold on her, ‘That’s because I’m not supposed to be seen with you.’   
  
‘What do you  _mean_? We’re the Heads of the school. Of course you’re going to be  _seen_  with me.’ Ali winced at getting so many words out and started to breathe shallow breaths as her pain escalated and her vision blurred.  
  
‘Doesn’t matter if we’re heads of the ministry. You’re the enemy.’ Regulus was looking ahead, allowing himself to be candid with the sickly girl as he marched them to the infirmary.   
  
‘I’m not the enemy, you crass idiot.’ Ali tried to fight against him once more, failing even faster than the last instance, ‘I’m trying to  _help_  you. I  _know_.’   
  
Regulus stopped them at the first flight of stairs and looked across at her, disbelief in his eyes.   
  
‘What?’ Neither of them moved after that as Regulus waited with baited breath.   
  
‘I know,’ Ali’s breaths were still shallow as she attempted to keep her eyes open and brows pinched together from pain, ‘about your parents. How they treated you both. I know. Your friends. They’re-’ she paused trying to get her breath. Regulus looked tense, ‘they’re a bad influence. I just- I just want to help.’ She admitted as if her fever was laced with veritaserum.   
  
Regulus’s tension eased and a foreign smile replaced it, ‘you really like me, don’t you?’ They began down the steps now and Ali winced with every step they took.  
  
‘Well- we’re really alike. So, I guess it’s nice- that you just- get me.’   
  
Regulus snorted softly, ‘we are pretty alike, aren’t we. Like two sides of a coin.’ They had a little trouble, but when they finally made it to the bottom of the stairs Ali looked around and realised it was dark outside.  
  
‘You also think I’m sexy though, admit it.’ Regulus played as they started off towards the grand staircase.  
  
Ali groaned from pain, ‘well it’s kind of hard not to. You’re a pint-sized version of my boyfriend.’ Ali’s lip curled up with dejection at her own words, ‘if he’s even my boyfriend anymore.’  
  
‘He’s still your boyfriend.’ Regulus assured her. But Ali was too upset and overcome with feverish emotions to listen to him.  
  
‘He won’t talk to me. And he yelled at me. And I miss him. And I love him. And he won’t talk to me.’ The tears welled up again as they made it to the staircase and started travelling down together. Regulus was chuckling.   
  
‘You said that one twice.’  
  
‘Well it’s a predominant one!’ She rationalised, ‘how are you supposed to have a long distance relationship  _when they won’t bloody talk to you_?’  
  
‘Give him hell.’ Regulus continued to chuckle, ‘he’s just being dramatic.’  
  
‘You know him, don’t you?’ Ali asked as they made it to the corridor leading to the hospital wing.   
  
‘Uh,’ Regulus sighed, ‘I used to.’  
  
‘Why don’t you two talk? I mean, I feel like I’m not supposed to ask. But I want to know. And I just, why don’t you two talk?’ Regulus used his foot to push open one of the double doors of the infirmary and helped Ali in through the small opening.   
  
He seemed to hesitate as they made it into the dark hospital wing, lit only by small flicking fires in the corners. All the beds were empty and Regulus looked sideways at Ali and swallowed.   
  
‘Because I’m not supposed to. Talk to him.’ He looked away for a moment and then turned back to whisper, ‘so I befriended you to fill in the gaps.’ He supplied her with a wink after that and heaved her further into the darkened room.  
  
‘Oh! What’s this!?’ Madam Pomfrey squawked as she dawdled out of her office with some paperwork, unaware she had any visitors to the wing.   
  
‘She’s got a flu, I think. Collapsed in our office and I’m quite sure she’s been up there for almost twenty four hours.’ Regulus spoke to the matron while Ali tried to decipher his previous words.  
  
‘Oh goodness!  Get her into a bed right away, please. I’ll start whipping up a potion.’ The matron scurried off and Regulus sat Ali down on the nearest cot, peeling her arm off from around his neck and holding onto either side of her to keep her stable.   
  
‘What does that mean?’   
  
‘It doesn’t matter. Lay down.’ Regulus commanded, helping her up further on the bed and watching as she curled up on top of the covers.   
  
‘I like you.’ Ali smiled up at him, delirium completely taking over now.  
  
Regulus chuckled, ‘I like you, too.’   
  
‘Why do you keep snubbing me then? I just want- you-’ she started shivering so much that she couldn’t continue her sentence until she was under the covers, which Regulus helped her with, ‘I don’t know why you don’t like me one minute, then you like me the next.’  
  
Regulus looked down at her, eyes flicking from her left eye to her right, ‘I’m not supposed to talk to you, either.’   
  
‘Says- who?’ Ali asked, breaths still shallow and laboured.  
  
‘Good question.’ Regulus looked like he had been asking the same question himself recently.   
  
‘Why were Crouch and Lestrange hounding you the other night? Out in the corridors?’  
  
‘They don’t think I’m taking my duties seriously enough.’ Regulus sneered and rolled his eyes.  
  
‘Head duties? Well, they’re right.’ Ali pulled the blankets up to her neck and continued to shiver.  
  
‘Yeah. Something like that.’ Regulus nodded, looking down at her with a serene expression, ‘you better not remember any of this tomorrow.’   
  
‘Will you get Sirius for me?’ Ali’s eyes started to slip shut and roll back in her head.  
  
‘Sure. He’ll come see you in the morning. Just get some rest.’ Regulus voice met her ears and she smiled.  
  
‘Okay.’ She felt herself drifting as fingers brushed over her forehead.  
  
‘Adams?’ Regulus asked. Ali hummed a reply between her short breaths, ‘can you promise me- just one thing?’  
  
‘I- can try.’ She opened her eyes and Regulus looked hesitant.   
  
‘Look after Sirius?’ He looked down at her, with shadows from the distant fires dancing over his face. He was the depiction of innocence in that moment, ‘he can be a terror. But- he needs someone to look after him.’   
  
Ali smiled up at him and nodded as her eyes slipped shut again, ‘I will. I love him.’  
  
‘Yeah,’ Regulus voice was fading as Ali drifted back into a fever induced sleep, ‘me, too.’ Ali barely heard his words before her fever consumed her once again.

*

It took Ali three days in a hospital cot before Madam Pomfrey allowed her to leave. In that time, she had no visitors. But the stint away from classes, along with the pepper-up-potions, made sure she got a lot of study done and felt on top of her game again. Her only problem was that she wanted to write to Sirius, regardless of Peter’s advice. But Madam Pomfrey ordered her bed-rest and bed-rest didn’t allow trips to the owlery.   
  
She had taken the three days to catch up on all the things weighing her down, and stressing her out, but also she had enough alone time in the empty wing to really deliberate about Sirius’s mood. She was almost sure of it now, that Sirius had acted out due to an insecurity. When she had spent the boys last two weeks of school, holed up in their dorm with them, she had learnt that Sirius could be incredibly snappy and fairly dramatic in his own way.   
  
But she had come to the conclusion that Sirius just needed to be told that she wasn’t interested in his brother. As ridiculous as it seemed. She gathered that maybe Sirius was just a little vulnerable in that way. And if that was truly the problem, it was something they could work on. It was better to think of it this way than the alternative, which was that he just no longer wanted to be with her. That hurt too much for her to bear.   
  
As she held a letter in her hand, written to Sirius, detailing exactly how she felt about him and why he shouldn’t question it, she remembered her letter to Peter from the night she got sick. She realised he was probably worried, having not heard back from her in days now. So she changed her course and made off towards her office, first.   
  
There were two main things plaguing her thoughts on her way there. One was that maybe she was wrong and Sirius wasn’t insecure, he really just didn’t care for her anymore. The second was how  _bad_  she smelt. Neither thought was very comforting. The idea of a bath in the prefect’s bathroom was calling to her as she tried to dull the pain of her unsure relationship status.   
  
She made it into her office and when she looked up to see if Regulus was inside, something forced her to stop dead in her tracks.   
  
Sirius was there, holding onto some of the papers from her desk, staring at her with his mouth slightly agape.   
  
‘H-hey. Hi, uh.’ He dropped the papers and straightened up, ‘I snuck in here. I- uh, I mean.’ He scratched the back of his head, looking down at the floor, ‘It’s just, you hadn’t written to me for four days. I- I got worried. I couldn’t sleep at all last night. And then I started to panic this morning. And then I was at Hogsmeade. And then I was here. And- you- you hadn’t written.’  
  
He seemed abashed as he looked back up towards her and Ali had to force herself to blink. She was scared she was hallucinating this scene. When her eyes were reopened and Sirius was still before her, she dropped her letter and crossed the room in a matter of seconds, throwing her arms around his neck.   
  
His arms closed around her, lifting her into his body and swinging her around from the force she had propelled herself at him. Once they were stationary again Ali forgot about every bad thought hovering over her and just consumed the moment for everything that it was. It was like, instantly, her cares had just disappeared from one stuttered, messy speech and the sight of him. He was there. She was hugging him and he was there. Dumbledore was not informing her he was gone. He was  _really there_.  
  
She didn’t let him go, or speak. They just stayed tightly embraced for a long while. She clamped her eyes shut and breathed in his scent. He smelt the same as he always did and that reassured her that this wasn’t some kind of illusion.   
  
‘You’re here.’ Her voice cracked with her emotions as she squeezed her arms tighter around him. Sirius’s arms pressed up against her back and travelled up under her matted curls to rest his index finger at the base of her head while the rest of his hand curled around the back of her neck, holding her close.   
  
For a while they stayed like that, until Ali suddenly pushed herself off of him and held him at arm’s length, ‘You’re  _here_!’ her temporary elation snapped away and she glared at him.   
  
‘Yeah, this was more what I was expecting.’ Sirius winced, readying himself for a scolding.   
  
‘You,  _jerk_! Do you know what I have been doing? I stressed myself into a  _fever_! You literally made me  _sick_.’ She grabbed two handful of his jumper and dragged him down to her eyelevel, so her glare could very much be seen.   
  
‘You were sick?’ Sirius had dark circles under his eyes and her words seemed to induce more panic over him then was already evident by his jerky movements and stiff posture. He pulled his hand up to cover her forehead and locked his eyes onto hers.   
  
They were only centimetres from one another and Sirius’s lips parted from the awe he looked to be in just from gazing at her. His hand still rested on her forehead. Ali’s fists still gripping the neck of his jumper. It took mere moments for them to both pull together and dissolve into a heated kiss. It wasn’t sweet, or careful. It was messy and fervent and it led them to smashing back into the desk behind them and knocking the chair over in the process.   
  
Teeth were knocking against teeth and Ali tasted blood when Sirius’s smacked a little too hard into her mouth. But the pain in her lip wasn’t worth agonising over because what was progressing was making her blood course all over her body with so much intensity she could feel it pulsating in all the telling spots. Her stomach was trembling with elation and her hands were yanking at the bottom of Sirius’s jumper. In one swift movement they divided for long enough to pull both the shirt he was wearing, along with his jumper, over his head to discard it on the floor. It took them less than a second to reengage in the heated exchange.   
  
Ali felt the hot skin of Sirius’s taunt abdomen and whimpered from how much she had wanted to touch any part of him ever since he had disapparated from James’s that day. She  _needed_  to touch him. The room was filled with the sound of their hands running up and down the length of each other’s bodies as well as the almost violent sound of their mouths attacking one another and their tongues delving in and out of the other’s mouths.    
  
Ali pushed up against Sirius to the point that he fell back against her desk, half laying on Regulus’s in the process. Ali just climbed atop and straddled him, continuing the kiss from a new angle. Sirius’s hands travelled downwards and slid up under her skirt, gripping the tops of her thighs and digging his fingers in to her skin. Ali had never felt so close to anyone in her life. After being apart almost three weeks, with no contact and on bad terms, she needed to rectify the hollow memories that were still loitering. She needed to be up against him. Pressed into his body, feeling like that kind of distance would never plague them the same way.   
  
‘Stop.’ His word was betrayed by how little force there was to his request. But Sirius pushed Ali up, holding her above him, trying desperately to catch his breath.   
  
Ali looked down at him. His lips were bright red and his cheeks were flushed and he was breathing so heavily. Ali was sure she had never been more attracted to anyone in her life. She was beyond sure.  _No one_  would ever be more beautiful than Sirius was right then in that moment, looking up at her like she was the focal point of the universe.   
  
‘You’re so beautiful.’ He almost looked pained by his words, ‘I have to apologise.’  He shifted them, so that he was sitting up and able to move back off the desk. He left her side for a moment, grabbed the knocked over chair and then her hand and marched over to where the couch was.   
  
He sat her down first, on the couch, then placed the chair before her and took a seat.   
  
‘Sirius-’  
  
‘No. No, let me apologise.’ He pleaded, leaning forward and placing a light kiss to her cheek, lingering for a moment before drawing back and pausing.  
  
‘I’m sorry.’ He began and Ali tried to remember that she wanted this apology as much as she wanted to continue kissing him. Her heartrate was still racing as she tried to catch her breath.   
  
‘I was never angry that you were talking about school.’ He admitted scratching the back of his neck and looking at the floor. He went still, avoiding eye contact as he continued, ‘and this does not permit my behaviour but- I was so ashamed of the way I took out my anger on you, I couldn’t even get over myself to come and see you.’ Ali felt herself calm down considerably as she watched Sirius’s nostrils flare and lip twitch as he kept his face fixated towards an uninteresting part of the rug.  
  
‘I don’t deserve this.’ He picked his hand up to motion between them, ‘I certainly don’t fucking deserve you wanting to kiss me after I’ve ignored you for so long.’  
  
Ali froze. She knew he was right. He was in the wrong. He had screwed up. Now that he was here and kissing her, she knew her assumptions about his insecurity had to have been right. And because of  _his_  insecurity, he chose to lash out at her and then torment her by ignoring her and leaving her wading through limbo, trying to decipher what  _she_  had done wrong. She knew he was unfathomably and irrevocably right. And she chose her reply carefully.   
  
‘I,’ but then she paused when Sirius pulled his head up to reveal the makings of tears in his eyes. She was silenced by the gravity of that sentiment. She had never seen Sirius cry. Even now, tears were not spilling over his lids. His eyes were glazed over and she had the infallible urge to reach out hug him, ‘I love you.’   
  
It wasn’t what she had planned on saying. It just fell out of her mouth. And it was the only thing she felt right saying in that moment. And it threw Sirius, completely. There was remorse and guilt written clear as day, filling every space of his face.   
  
‘Fuck, Ali! Don’t you get what I’m saying to you?’  
  
‘Not really.’ She shrugged, ‘I’m never that great at picking up on shit. But, I know one thing for certain, and that is; I love you. I’m in love with you. And while it’s not an excuse for you being a fucking  _arse_. I just do. I love you.’  
  
‘Stop it!’ Sirius covered his face with his hands and stayed like that for a while. When he pulled his hands away there were tears in his eyes and Ali shifted from her seat on the couch to kneeling before him, ‘I don’t deserve you.’ He tried to reason with her, ‘you’re too good. I’m- I don’t-’  
  
‘Yeah, you do.’ Ali interrupted shaking her head at him. Sirius’s breath caught and Ali smiled, being able to reach up and brush the tear that was falling down towards her, ‘you do deserve it. And I will actually slap you if you keep saying you don’t.’  
  
‘You’re better off without-’  
  
‘Shh~’ Ali pulled a finger up to covering his lips in a shushing motion, ‘Shut  _up_.’ She was on the verge of laughing from the revelation that this situation brought about for her. She was happy. ‘I love you. And I want to be with you. I don’t want it to be perfect. You have problems, so do I. But I want to sort those problems out  _together_. I just want to be with you, and I feel like whatever we do, as long as it’s together, we can work it out.  
  
               ‘And I know you have trouble saying the words, Sirius. But… you love me, too. I know. Because, of the things you do. You spend all your time with me. You make me feel like I’m the most important person in your life. You play with my little brother, even when I’m away at school. You never pressure me into anything. You’re kind, and patient, and you love me. You just struggle saying it, because you think you’re tainted by your families hate.’  
  
Sirius didn’t break eye contact with Ali as she spoke the most confident words she had ever spoken. She smiled at him and he reached up and cupped his hands around her face and swallowed.  
  
‘How can I deserve you?’  
  
‘Because,’ Ali stood up and settled herself back down on Sirius’s lap, pressing a kiss to his lips and watching as he savoured it before opening his eyes again to continue watching her, ‘I know you told me you don’t know how to love. And I think you’ve just poisoned yourself with that notion. Because, I don’t think I’ve ever met someone that loves as much as you. You taught me how to love.  
  
               ‘And I don’t really care if you say it, because I can feel it and that’s what ma-’  
  
‘I love you.’ Sirius interrupted her. His eyes bore back into hers with so much intensity she felt momentarily silenced. Sirius swallowed, ‘I do. I know I- I know. I just sort of figured it out a week ago. I realised I was jealous cause I saw you hugging Regulus. And-’ the next part he seemed to struggle with.  
  
Ali allowed him to think for a moment, still taken aback with the fact that Sirius had worked up the courage to say what he was feeling. She knew Sirius loved her, because she had seen love all her life. She knew what it looked like. And while she loved her parents and little brother. It was a completely new feeling when she was taken over with the way she felt for Sirius.   
  
‘I realised I was so scared of the idea of losing you to him, that I pushed you away to avoid dealing with what I was feeling. But- I was  _so_ scared of losing you. I just- I figured it out. You just… you make everything so easy. It’s so easy. To love you. I thought it was supposed to hurt. Because-’ he stopped and shut his eyes.  
  
Ali swallowed, ‘Sirius. Just so you know. My love for you isn’t conditional. There are no conditions. And it won’t just stop one day. So, you don’t have to worry. …you have me.’ She made it clear because as she lay in her hospital cot, she was bombarded with a landslide of thoughts. And one of them was that Sirius’s insecurity stemmed from the fact that his mother and father tossed him aside, voiding their parental love and teaching him that love was conditional, when in reality love was so unconditional it bordered on the absurd.   
  
Without realising what he was doing, Sirius closed his arms up around her waist and settled his forehead on her clavicle and allowed a silence to grace them both. Minutes passed by and Ali just lifted her hands up and ran them rhythmically through Sirius’s hair. She shut her eyes and smiled, listening to his breathing, completely consumed with happiness.   
  
She knew she should have been angry with him. He had hurt her and caused her pain and rightfully she should have been angry. But she couldn’t explain it. The minute she saw him, it was as if everything bad just faded into the background. She was so happy. She was so in love with him. She knew he had flaws and just chose to accept him anyway. She could have yelled and brought more attention to the repercussions his temper tantrum had on her, but she was quite sure he already knew. And she just wanted to be up against him. She couldn’t fight.  
  
Sirius pulled back and looked up at her, like a whimpering puppy dog, scared of being scolded. Ali raised one brow at him.  
  
‘And I don’t fancy your brother, you git.’ She reiterated and Sirius bit his lip. He continued to look up at her with the most annoyingly adorable look that Ali had to shake her head before leaning down and pressing a short kiss to his lips.   
  
‘I love you.’ He spoke the words so softly Ali had to make them out from the way his lips moved. She smiled down at him, euphoria taking over her body.  
  
‘I know.’ She nodded. She leant down and kissed him again. And again. She dragged her hands over his bare flesh and he reacted with groans of pleasure into her mouth, gripping his arms around her so tightly it felt like the blood supply was being cut to her lower extremities.   
  
‘The feeling I have when I’m around you. It’s like I can’t grab enough of you with my hands to fulfil my need for you. I just- I need you.’ Sirius whispered into her ear between pressing kisses around her jaw and neck. Ali grabbed fistfuls of his hair, eyes rolling back in her head from the electricity coursing through them.  
  
‘Sirius.’ Ali looked down at him, hands reaching down to his pants. Sirius stopped what he was doing and looked at her questioningly. Ali just nodded to him, fumbling with his belt.   
  
‘Oh.’ Sirius’s eyes went wide, ‘right.’ He scooped her up, putting a stop to her intention of ridding him of his pants and dropped her down onto the couch, lowering himself down on to her, where the passionate kissing recommenced.   
  
They were lucky enough that no one came knocking on the office door that day. After a while they did remember to lock it. But the letter she had written to Peter wasn’t sent until the subsequent night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I first wrote this, it was at harrypotterfanfiction and there was a very strict policy against any kind of graphic sexual content... I am almost tempted to add to it now.


	72. Islington, London

_Ali was walking towards her office, completely spent from the month’s activities and the overtime she had been pouring into both trying to catch Barty Crouch and Rabastan Lestrange in the act of their toxic behaviours towards any muggleborns of the student body, as well as undergoing her NEWTs. She was so ready to sink into her couch and write a letter to Sirius to cheer herself up._  
  
 _She had been in contact with Dumbledore a few times over the school year, and he was now aware of who it was that was acting up. They hadn’t done anything in the extreme. Nothing that would merit them having to leave the school, as Dumbledore had informed her. Mostly it was just their blood-supremacy mindset that had them reducing students to tears. But Barty Crouch was intelligent. And he was hexing objects and leaving them for muggleborns to find; and although Ali knew she was dead on with her assumptions, she could never catch him at it. And Dumbledore informed her it wasn’t in their best interest to target the son of her father’s boss unless they had very real, incriminating evidence._  
  
 _Ali had tried to weed it out of Regulus. She could see a massive difference in him. He was distancing himself from his friends and spending most of his time with her in their office. He looked worse as the year dragged on. Like he wasn’t sleeping much, and that he needed help. Ali knew Dumbledore must have meant for her assignment to be focused more on Regulus than the other two. And so she just kept Regulus as close as he would allow her._  
  
 _As she approached her office now, she pulled up short before she turned the handle to enter. She could hear something. Almost like a muffled sobbing. She frowned, listening in for a moment longer before she decided to intrude._  
  
 _‘Reg-’ She pulled up short seeing Regulus in their office, head in his hands before he perked up to look over at her. There was a house-elf in the office with him. He was a tiny little thing, with a bulbous nose and dark hair shimmering in the firelight, growing out of his massive ears._  
  
 _‘Go.’ Regulus shooed the house elf and he glanced over at Ali for a lingering moment before disappearing with a faint pop._  
  
 _‘Who was that? Your house elf?’ Ali moved closer inside, shutting the door behind her._  
  
 _‘Don’t tell anyone he was here, please.’ Regulus wiped his face with the sleeve of his robes and stood up, turning away from Ali._  
  
 _‘It’s fine. I won’t say anything. There’s no rules against your house elves visiting… I don’t think.’ Ali actually had to think about that one. She was sure there was nothing that went into the logistics of visitors of the elf variety. Maybe there was? Maybe she should have cross-referenced before she spoke? She shook her head of her internal thoughts and remembered the crying boy before her._  
  
 _‘Are you all right?’ She came to stand behind him and Regulus nodded._  
  
 _‘Just… some personal stuff.’_  
  
 _‘You can talk to me.’_  
  
 _‘No, I can’t.’_  
  
 _‘Yes, you can.’ Ali screwed up her nose at his comment. She wasn’t the best at comforting people._  
  
 _‘You don’t get it,’ Regulus turned around, ‘we shouldn’t even be talking to each other. You shouldn’t have seen all this. I’m going to get us both into trouble.’_  
  
 _‘Why would we get in trouble for talking to each other? Who on earth would care?’_  
  
 _‘People.’_  
  
 _‘Which people?’_  
  
 _‘The wrong people.’_  
  
 _‘You’re making about as much sense as a drunk goblin.’ Ali smacked him. It served its purpose because Regulus immediately straightened up and stared at her._  
  
 _‘I get that you’re going through some stuff this year. You’ve been struggling since before I even got to know you. But to see you struggling, it means you’re agonising over what you’re doing, or being told to do, I don’t know. But, from the outside, it seems like you’re struggling because you want to do what’s right.’ They both shared a look after that. Regulus had tiny glistening tears drying on his cheeks._  
  
 _‘If you knew the stuff I’ve done… the stuff I_ did _over the holidays…’ Regulus looked away._  
  
 _Ali sighed, ‘Regulus, I really don’t care. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not exactly popular.’_  
  
 _‘Join the club.’_  
  
 _‘Shut up. You’ve been the closest friend I’ve had at Hogwarts all year. You’re kind of a crappy friend. We both know that. But I care about you. A lot, now. And I care about what happens to you. But I don’t care about what you’ve done. You’re a good person, contrary to popular belief. And I just don’t see you doing anything truly bad. So… just… forgive yourself.’_  
  
 _After she finished her little proclamation, Regulus stared at her. The firelight above flickered, casting moving shadows over the room and their faces. Then Regulus let out a deep breath, and allowed his head to fall forward between them and rest on her shoulder._  
  
 _Ali blinked away her confusion for a moment. Regulus was not a touchy-feely kind of person, and neither was she. But he seemed as if he really needed some kind of closeness, and so she pulled her arms up and pat his back._  
  
 _‘You’d hate me… if you knew.’ Regulus whispered._  
  
 _‘Regulus. You’re like… a really annoying little brother to me now-’_  
  
 _‘I’m older than you.’_  
  
 _‘You’re like a_ really _annoying little brother to me now.’ She continued, ‘and while I might get pissed off with my little brother for the stuff he does. I still love him.’_  
  
 _After that there was silence. She didn’t need to say the words directly. The connotation was in the sentence. Regulus lifted his arms up and gripped her back and Ali felt like finally, her mission might have been getting somewhere._  
  
Ali stirred awake from her dream and looked around the darkened room. It took her a moment to remember where she was. She was dreaming of the moment she and Regulus had shared a few weeks back. She looked to her left and Sirius’s sleeping face was so serene and close. His arm was draped over her torso and she smiled.  
  
She shimmed out from under him and tried to leave the bed without waking him. Thankfully the bed didn’t make any noise, and she tip-toed off down the stairs and around the staircase to the kitchen area of the flat. She got a cup and conjured herself some water and made her way back upstairs. Sirius was sitting up when she returned, hair sticking up at one side, eyes squinting to try and see.   
  
She laughed at the sight of him.   
  
‘Where’d you go?’ His voice was raspy with sleep.  
  
‘Water.’ She took a sip from the glass and got back into bed to appease him.  
  
‘You’re not allowed to leave me.’ He wrapped his arm back around her and pulled her down into him. She almost lost half the contents of her glass in the process but managed to set it down just in time.  
  
‘Calm down.’ She laughed at his ridiculousness.  
  
‘I will not. It’s been weeks without you.’ He sulked and snuggled back into her.  
  
‘I had NEWTs.’ Ali couldn’t help her smile.  
  
‘School is for losers. Your boyfriend was  _alone_  and  _dying_  without you.’ Sirius mumbled, shutting his eyes and getting them both comfortable, wound up in each other.   
  
‘You broke into the school  _once a week_. I shouldn’t have allowed it, but I did. For  _you_.’   
  
‘Yeah, I did get incredibly good at that.’ Sirius sounded happy with himself.  
  
‘You shouldn’t be proud.  _I_  shouldn’t be proud.’  
  
‘Hey, those skills could serve a greater purpose in the future.’   
  
‘What purpose could breaking into a  _school_  serve you?’  
  
‘I might be a criminal master-mind. I might need to break into Hogwarts to save  _lives_ , Ali.’ Sirius’s sleepy voice was clearing as they continued their late night conversation.  
  
‘You couldn’t ever be a criminal master-mind. You’re too flamboyant. You’d want everyone to know it was you.’  
  
‘I obeyed your orders and left you alone.  _For two weeks._  I was good.’   
  
‘Yes, you were a very good boy. Good dog.’  
  
‘Two  _weeks_ , Ali! Without you! I was going stark raving mad!’  
  
‘You could have easily helped yourself along without me for  _two weeks_ , Sirius.’ Ali rolled her eyes.  
  
‘I can’t. I need you. Always. Forever. Praise me.’ He nuzzled into her neck and Ali let loose a laugh, wrapping her arms around him and turning to embrace him better.   
  
Since their first time, Sirius didn’t seem capable of controlling himself from then onwards. He wanted to be with Ali every moment she could spare. Which wasn’t as often as he would have liked. But Ali was very much in the same boat, although she still paid attention to her more pressing duties, like being Head Girl and her NEWTs study. But she would set aside one night a week, sometimes two, where she would send word to Sirius and they would lock themselves up in the Heads office or random places around the castle if Regulus was present. The room of requirements played host a number of times and Ali was astounded Sirius had never taken her there before.   
  
But as the school year ticked on, she had forbidden Sirius from visiting for the last two weeks of the year, so she could devote herself completely to studying and taking her final exams. It was probably best he didn’t visit, too. Ali became an utter tyrant that fortnight with more than one detention thrown at her underclassmen for reasons that didn’t truly merit punishment.   
  
But Ali’s final year came to an end. The world was still dark. Voldemort’s name was still scarcely uttered unless in the confines of secrecy or as a bold gesture. Lily, Marlene and the boys were all still undertaking missions and patrols for the Order. Dumbledore wasn’t seen much, unless the entire of the Order was requested for crucial information.   
  
On Ali’s first day of graduated living she had opted to spend it, for the first time, at Sirius’s apartment with him. She had cleared it with Christian, but it was more of a courtesy than a request. Tucker hadn’t been happy about it, but when he complained and Christian tried to lay the guilt trip on her via her baby brother’s tears she had come back with “would you rather Sirius stayed here with me, in my bed, in the room next to his?” and after that Christian didn’t speak again.   
  
She was now seventeen. She had graduated Hogwarts. She wasn’t sure of her overall grades, but she knew she would have passed everything. She was living through a warand a member of a rebel alliance fighting a dictator. She wouldn’t take “no” for an answer when it came to staying at her boyfriend’s flat anymore. Her daddy would just have to deal.   
  
As Sirius, now very awake, propped himself up on his elbow and dipped down, laying kisses to her clavicle, she looked over to the wall of windows of the loft apartment and saw that day was only just breaking. It would have been no later than 6:30AM. She sighed, knowing there was no way either of them was going back to sleep now. She just inched into the soft touch of his lips and dragged her hands down over his bare back and slipped them under his pants.   
  
She felt his smile against her skin and rolled her eyes. He thought he was  _so_  sexy. He could just get whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. He was right, of course. But Ali didn’t like the let on to it. She tried to make him work for it. When she could resist him. Which wasn’t often. But since that first night together, the first time he voiced his true feelings, he couldn’t keep his hands to himself. And Ali wasn’t complaining.   
  
Just as he gently pushed the thin strap of her satin pyjama top off her shoulder, she moved her hands from his backside around to the front of his pants and that was the signal that they were absolutely,  _positively_  not getting back to sleep. 

*

They did manage to get back to sleep. It was just quite some time later and that caused them both to sleep in to well past midday. As Ali stirred awake for the second time that morning Sirius pulled her closer into his body, acting the big spoon and Ali smiled, trying to remember what it was that had woken her up.  
  
Then Regulus swam back to her. Her sweet friend. Her saving grace of her seventh year. She was supposed to be helping him, but she was sure he helped her just as much. She truly cared from the younger Black. And seeing him that night, crying, she wanted to help. She just wasn’t entirely sure  _how_.  
  
‘Sirius?’  
  
He hummed a reply.  
  
‘I’m worried about Regulus.’ She just stated it in cold, hard facts. She knew it was a touchy subject for the boy wound up in her hair behind her, but if he was going to be her boyfriend, and love her, he’d just have to get over himself.  
  
‘Why?’ He sounded less enthused about this subject than the previous one that had exhausted them to the point of passing out an hour before.   
  
‘He just seems really tortured. And it doesn’t seem like he has anyone around him that cares.’  
  
‘He’s an idiot.’ Sirius released his hold on her and turned to face the ceiling above.  
  
‘He is not.’  
  
‘He  _is_.’  
  
‘Why?’ Ali flipped over to face him. Sirius just looked at her without moving his head, then flicked his grey eyes back to the ceiling and they sat in silence.  
  
‘He just is.’  
  
‘Well, sorry, that’s not a good enough answer.’ Ali shrugged and went to leave the bed.  
  
‘Hey!’ Sirius reached out pulling her back in, ‘just stay with me. Can’t we just spend the entire day together? Just stay in bed and forget about all the crap raging on around us?’ Ali looked around at him, his big eyes calling to her. Her nose pinched with annoyance and she knew it was no coincidence that Sirius Black’s,  _illegal_ , animagus form was a bloody dog.   
  
‘You can’t look at me like that.’  
  
‘Like what?’ he continued the pathetic look.   
  
Ali groaned and resigned herself in defeat, curling back up with him.   
  
‘Fine. But tomorrow I’m going to see him. I want to make sure he’s okay.’  
  
‘Oh, he’s more than okay.’ Sirius rolled his eyes, but left the comment there, happy what he had won the argument for now.   
  
‘You know,’ Sirius started as Ali rubbed her eyes and attempted to fix her bed hair, ‘I still can’t believe you  _handed in our map_. To  _Filch_  of all people!’ Sirius was still sour about the revelation she had laid on him the day before when he had asked for his map back.   
  
‘I wasn’t about to let it fall into anyone  _else’s_  hands. And Filch is a squib. He would never figure it out.’ Ali smirked, knowing she had irked him.  
  
Sirius just let out a bark of a laugh, ‘I’m sorry, but that information will  _never_  stop being funny.’  
  
‘Leave him alone. You four did irreversible damage to the poor man when you were there. He has a twitch now whenever he hears someone whistle.’ That only made Sirius laugh more.  
  
Ali lifted a leg over his body and straddled him, grasping both his wrist in her hands and pinning them above his head, ‘stop laughing.’  
  
Sirius’s eyes grew and he just blinked sporadically, staring at her. There was a silence between them, until she felt something tickle the small of her back and realised exactly what this position was doing to the boy beneath her.  
  
‘Sirius!’ She started laughing.  
  
‘What did you expect to happen when you mount me and get demanding?!’  
  
They both burst into laughter, coming to terms with the fact that their day was going to be far from productive, unless sexual endeavours were counted. 

*

It wasn’t the following day that Ali got around to going off in search of her unlikely friend. It wasn’t even the following week. Sirius had monopolised her time, and she knew exactly what it was he was doing, and didn’t fight it. They spent a lot of time locked away in his flat. They also went out for walks around the bright London avenues and smiled about the warm weather and the cheerful faces of the oblivious muggles.   
  
They also spent a lot of time back at Ali’s house, with Tucker and her grandparents, and mopey father. Anne Adams jeered and made fun of son’s pathetic attitude towards his only daughter finding love,“with a bloody  _stud_  for that matter. Just look at the boy! Your grandkids will be worshipped in the streets! Keep at it, kids!” That awarded a flush of embarrassment to at least three sets of cheeks and Tucker Jr. cackling at them all.   
  
They also visited their friends. James and Lily were still as sickeningly sweet as ever. It was as if they never had bad days. They just  _matched_. While Lily got frustrated and smacked James from time to time, he also gave her his best doe eyes and was back in her good graces within moments. James Potter had more heart than any of their group. Possibly even combined. He was the most caring individual Ali knew of. But that didn’t stop him from being an arrogant prat from time to time. He was still growing. But at this point, his good traits outweighed his bad.   
  
If Lily and James matched, there was an undeniable feeling that another of their two friends  _didn’t_  match. Anymore, at least. Remus and Marlene. They were still “together”. But as Sirius frequently put it, “what’s the point?” They were on completely different wave lengths. Marlene seemed fine. But she barely paid attention to Remus. It was like she forgot he existed unless he was directly in front of her, waving. And Remus seemed to be coming to terms with the fact that they weren’t exactly a “fit” anymore. No one really wanted to get into it. It was a touchy subject, and mostly they all tried to ignore it. Even Remus and Marlene, it seemed.   
  
Peter was stressed. He was undertaking Order missions the same as all the others. But he had never been on par with any of the boys when it came to magic. Ali sat with him, and he seemed to relax a little when she was around. She made him smile. And because she realised that, she tried to focus her attention on him when they were all together.   
  
But as it came to the end of her second week of graduate life, she remembered her other friend. Her lost, confused, and forgotten friend. She told Sirius she was going home the night before to look after Tucker so she could have been productive the next day and gotten up to do things. He took the chance to have the boys over for a boys-night at his flat as they were in a lull, not having much to go on, Order-wise.   
  
As Sunday came around, and she was up with Tucker and Christian, she sat down to breakfast with them. Breakfast was, of course, Christian’s favourite meal to prepare. (Or the only one he knew how to.)  
  
‘I’m  _sick_  of breakfast food!’ Tucker complained with a scowl.  
  
‘There are little witches and wizards in countries around the world with  _nothing_  to eat. Bite your tongue, young man.’ Christian chastised his son. He had grown a little more responsible-dad type since losing his wife. He used to play good auror, and Kanika was rule-abiding auror. But now he didn’t have the luxury. But Tucker, now six, was getting rather mature. He had started picking up books, trying to read them. Nothing like the books Ali read. He enjoyed his grandmother’s magazines more. Witch Weekly was his favourite. He loved the robe designs, and the models, and the accessories featured.   
  
‘Christian!’  
  
‘My name is  _Dad_.’  
  
‘ _Chris~tian!_ ’ Tucker flailed around and Ali chuckled, pouring him some pumpkin juice.   
  
‘I’m going to head off after breakfast. There’s someone I need to go and check up on.’   
  
‘I don’t want you apparating too far, Ali-bear.’ Christian warned, ‘you’ve only just got your licence at school and you haven’t had a chance to practice much. Take things slow for a while.’   
  
‘Yes, Christian.’ Ali sighed.  
  
‘My name is  _Dad_!’ Christian flung around and a bit of bacon flew out of his hand and hit a nearby wall. Tucker and Ali just giggled at their father and continued on eating their eggs. 

*

Later on that day, when Tucker was happily flipping through magazines and Christian was relaxing in the sitting room with him and Snowball nearby, Ali took that as her chance to get out. Christian wasn’t over-exaggerating when he warned her to be careful with apparating. She really hadn’t had much practice. And so she took the trip in a few points. And each time she appeared again, she scoured her body for any missing hairs or limbs even.   
  
Thankfully she made it in one piece. To a little borough in Islington, London. She looked up and down the street at all the little muggle children out and about. They were imaginative little things, muggle children. They had graffitied the sidewalks with colourful chalk and were skipping over the numbers on the pavement and running around chasing one another screaming out “tag”.  
  
Ali smiled, trying to envision Sirius and Regulus among them. But then her smile faded as she was reminded of the stories Sirius had told her from time to time about he and his little brother never being allowed to associate with the neighbourhood children. It was sad. She tried to ignore it and focus on the task at hand and looked at the street name. Grimmauld Place stared back at her. She was on the right street, at least.   
  
She walked on, dodging the children as they weaved in and out of the muggle cars parked around the place. When she came to number 11, she looked across to number 13 and had to stop and think. When she focused hard enough, number 12 appeared to her and she remembered what Sirius had told her about his father and putting a great deal of effort into making their home unplottable to muggles along with a manner of other enchantments.   
  
When number 12 was very much visible, she walked up the stairs to the front door and rapped the knocker twice with a thumping heart in her chest. She knew it was stupid, but these detestable people were still Sirius’s family. While she wanted to scream at them, for some reason, it was still rather daunting, the idea of meeting them. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but she hadn’t really thought into it all very much. She just wanted to see with her own two eyes that Regulus was okay.   
  
When the door didn’t open, she reached up to grab the knocker again, but before she could close her fingers around it, it slipped away from her grasp. She gathered her wits back and looked down the newly unveiled hallway and was slightly confused. She blinked, and then looked down at the little grunt that was made bellow.  
  
‘How can I… help?’ The little house elf looked her up and down and didn’t seem exactly impressed.   
  
‘Oh, you’re the house elf. I forgot about you.’ Ali looked back inside, ‘is Regulus at home?’ She requested politely.   
  
‘Master Regulus is out.’ The house elf didn’t seem to hold much emotion.   
  
‘Uh,’ Ali thought on it for a moment, ‘do you know when he’ll be back?’  
  
‘Not sure. He doesn’t like to keep us too informed.’  
  
‘Well,’ she thought on her next words for a moment. Was this really how she wanted to meet the horrible people that inflicted such a traumatic childhood on Sirius? ‘What about… Walburga? Or Orion?’ She was sure those were the right names. Sirius tended to attach different ones to them when he spoke of them. They were much more colourful.  
  
‘Master Orion is sick and does not wish to be disturbed. My Mistress is out visiting family, and doesn’t take in beggars.’  
  
‘Beggars?’ Ali frowned, ‘you best watch your tone, mister.’   
  
The little house elf just blinked back, seemingly shocked by her choice of words. Ali sighed, realising it was useless arguing with a house elf. They only did as they were told. There wasn’t much for it.   
  
‘What was your name?’  
  
The house elf surveyed her for a moment, before realising he knew her. He swallowed and then decided.  
  
‘Kreacher.’ He gave up and Ali smiled, kneeling down to his level.  
  
‘Well, despite your terrible manners. It was nice to meet you, Kreacher.’ She extended a hand to him and Kreacher looked at it with trepidation.   
  
‘You know Master Regulus?’ Kreacher looked up from her hand.  
  
Ali nodded, not retracting her offer of a greeting just yet.  
  
‘I was Head Girl with him. And I’d really like to check in on him. Just to make sure he’s okay.’ She explained.   
  
Kreacher looked back down at her hand. He seemed to deliberate for just a little longer before raising up his tiny fist and grasping her index finger.   
  
Ali smiled. Kreacher didn’t return it, but he seemed more at ease.   
  
‘Could you do me a favour, Kreacher?’  
  
Kreacher just watched her, awaiting her query.   
  
‘If Regulus is in trouble… could you come to me? I just… I know you care about him. He spoke of you to me before. And I’m a little worried about him. I just want to know he’s okay. That he’s getting by all right. If he needs help. Will you come to me?’ She rested her forearms on her knees as Kreacher watched.  
  
It took him a moment, but in the end he nodded.   
  
‘Kreacher will take it into consideration. But you’ll have to be leaving now. My Mistress doesn’t like visitors.’  
  
Ali just smiled at him, trying to be as gentle with her expressions as she could.   
  
‘Thank you, Kreacher. Let Regulus know I came by, please.’   
  
They nodded an odd goodbye to one another, before Ali took a few steps down and Kreacher closed the door quietly behind her.   
  
Her efforts had gone to waste, but she hoped the chance meeting with the house elf might have done some good. For now she would go home, and compose a letter to Regulus instead. And in the meantime, she would get back to her boyfriend. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so from what I gathered, Orion put a massive amount of enchantments on Grimmauld place to ward off muggles. And I think the Fidelius Charm was added by Dumbledore later on. "It's ideal for headquarters, of course. My father put every security measure known to wizard kind on it when he lived here. It's unplottable, so muggles could never come to call - as if they'd ever have wanted to - and now Dumbledore's added his protection, you'd be hard pressed to find a safer house anywhere." So correct me if I'm wrong, but I'll probably stick with it this way. Makes plot flow much easier...


	73. James' spontaneity

Remus stood outside the Potter residence, contemplating how he ended up there. He wasn’t having the greatest day. The full moon had just been a few days ago and he was in a slump in his life. He had been looking around for jobs, as he no longer wanted to be a burden on his parents. His sweet mother assured him he could stay as long as he liked, but he knew she was only saying that because she had to. It was a mother’s duty to love their children. And his had been more than accommodating with his monthly transitions. He wanted them both to have a break.  
  
But how was he to leave their home when he had next to no money and no prospect of a job? It was a conundrum he wasn’t ready to deal with. He swallowed, lifting his fist to the door, ready to knock. But then he froze. Why was he at James’s house? It was like a second home to all of the boys, these days. Sirius’s flat, also. But since Ali had graduated, Sirius had fallen off the radar with her. While James and Lily were still highly infectious with their loving regard, they were a little more reserved in the presence of others now. It had been over a year since they started dating.  
  
Yes, James’s house was a safe place. Seeing as he and Marlene barely saw each other anymore. He wasn’t even sure they were still dating? He was too scared to bring it up with her, because truthfully, he didn’t want it to end. It hadn't been the same since the day she found out about his… problem. They had spent long nights together but Marlene was withdrawn. She was trying, he could tell. But it was almost like a chemical reaction. Something neither of them could change, no matter how much they wanted to. It was just the way it was.  
  
As he continued to stare at James’s front door, inches away from knocking, he wondered if he might be a burden, just showing up this way. He took a breath in, trying to think, and suddenly the door flung open with so much force he was sucked inwards from the wind that swelled in behind him.  
  
‘Whoa there, cowboy!’ James laughed, grabbing Remus by the shoulders and steadying him.  
  
‘Cowboy?’ Was the only word Remus managed to squeeze out, once they were both standing again.  
  
‘Lily is teaching me a heap of cool stuff about muggles!’ James jumped right into his explanation, ‘It’s  _infinitely_  cooler than the stuff we learnt in muggle studies.’  
  
Remus chuckled, ‘I know what cowboys are.’ He couldn’t help his smile. Remus adored his exuberant friend. James was contagious. He was always so confident and loud. Most would view his personality as obnoxious, which Remus had to admit was true at times. But he had so many other qualities that balanced out his affluent background.  
  
‘Oh! Do you know about the war in the stars!?’ James pulled him further inside, ‘And were you about to knock? What have I told you about knocking?’  
  
‘I heard about what happened with Padfoot. I’m not taking any chances.’ Remus narrowed his eyes and tried to cover up the humour on his face.  
  
‘He asked for every one of those. And Lily’s not here, anyway.’ James confirmed, shutting the door behind them while Remus repeated the words “every one?” in a questioning undertone.  
  
‘Were you going out there for any reason?’ Remus asked as they walked in and slumped onto the lounges in the sitting room.  
  
‘Oh, yeah, but I forget why now.’ He shrugged, ‘Mum, Remus is here!’  
  
‘I’ll make some snacks!’ Mrs Potter called out from somewhere outside.  
  
‘You’re the best!’  
  
As the morning went on and both Potter’s pampered Remus, as they always did, Remus slowly forgot about what it was that had made him so glum at the beginning. By the time Lily showed up the house was so filled with excitement and happiness, Remus felt himself relax so much, the muscle in his neck that had been giving him trouble over the past few days, noticeably loosened.  
  
‘Well, as proud of all of as I am, I do worry about this Order business.’ Mrs Potter admitted as their conversation drifted towards their missions.  
  
‘Why would you worry? Look at me! I’m practically the saviour of the wizarding world, Mum.’ James smacked himself in the chest and grinned. It didn’t take Lily long to whack him upside the head, while Mrs Potter and Remus laughed at the two of them.  
  
‘You are a good boy, James.’ Mrs Potter stood up with that, moved towards the couch Lily and James were intermingled on, leant down and placed a kiss to her son’s forehead, which James inched into with a radiant smile.  
  
‘I’m off to see Mabel! James, you’ll talk to Lily about what we’ve been discussing, won’t you?’  
  
‘Yes, ma’am!’ James saluted her.  
  
‘What are you two discussing without me?’ Lily pretended to be shocked, looking away from where she was trying to fix the front of James’s hair.  
  
‘Oh, nothing, really.’ Mrs Potter winked at her, ‘it was lovely to see you, Remus! Do come by more often!’  
  
‘I certainly will, Mrs Potter. Thank you for the tea and biscuits!’ Remus called out to her retreating form.  
  
When he turned back to James and Lily, Lily was nestled on James lap, still pulling her fingers through his unruly hair. They were talking to one another, loud enough for Remus to hear, but Remus just watched them for a moment without taking in the conversation. James was staring up at Lily like she was the most profoundly precious artefact in all the wizarding and muggle world. Lily was smiling down at him, shaking her head ever so slightly.  
  
Remus was unable to feel sadness when he was around the two of them. They had the most intense love he had seen two people experience. It was funny to think of how crazy James used to be about Lily, and how crazy he used to  _make_  Lily. While Remus always really thought Lily had a bit of a soft spot for James, despite her name calling towards him, it was still perfectly magical to see how happy they were together.  
  
James was now pulling his face into a sour pout while Lily laughed at him and Remus shook his head of his blissful expression and tried to pay more attention to their words.  
  
‘I have to go.’  
  
‘But I have to  _tell you something_.’  
  
‘Then tell me, James.’  
  
‘But I  _can’t_.’  
  
‘Then I’m going.’  
  
‘But then how am I going to tell you the  _thing_?’  
  
‘Well,’ Lily lent down and kissed him, ‘I know it’s tough. But you use your lips like this and push the air forth to make sounds. You’ll get the hang of it someday.’  
  
Remus laughed at them as Lily kissed James again, while his pout only intensified.  
  
‘You’ll have to cheer him up, Moony. I just came over to say hello. I already organised a day with Mary and Marls.’ Lily tried to pry herself away from James, but he was clinging onto her.  
  
‘Oh, really? Well, I’ll figure something out.’ Remus assured her, trying to hide that he had no idea about Marlene organising to hang out with her. Boyfriends were supposed to know that type of thing.  
  
‘Are we going to see your sister and her marshmallow husband again when your parents get back next week? Will he be bringing his car?’ James turned his nose up after his sentence.  
  
‘No. Thank god. They really are a perfect match for each other.’ Lily sighed, ‘I still can’t believe he called you an out of work magician at the wedding.’ Lily’s face turned menacing and Remus watched as James jumped up and kissed her cheek.  
  
‘Who cares? At least I’m handsome. He looks like a pig crossed with a goblin.’ James turned to direct his words at Remus, ‘you should see this guy, Moony. He’s about four of me. And he always looks angry. It’s so much fun riling him up.’  
  
‘I bet it is.’ Remus could only imagine the fun James would have had with muggles. Especially from the stories he had been told about Lily’s family via James.  
  
‘Okay, you boys have fun!’ Lily turned to James, giving him one final kiss, ‘Love you.’ And then disappeared.  
  
James turned to Remus, standing tall, ‘okay. Now that she’s  _finally_  gone, we can do some boy stuff.’  
  
James puffed up, looking around the room while Remus raised a brow at him.  
  
‘Do you want me to get you a tissue? Are you going to cry?’  
  
‘Sod off, you mangy wolf.’ James threw back as they laughed together.

*

‘Prongs, what are we doing here?’ Remus watched on as James’s excitable behaviour kicked into overdrive, walking through the streets of London.  
  
‘I told you already, I’m buying you lunch and we’re going into muggle stores for fun.’ James repeated while Remus followed along behind him, observing the reactions of the city folk to James’s enthusiasm.  
  
‘You don’t have to buy me lunch.’ Remus felt strange when James always offered to pay for things. He didn’t like taking advantage of him.  
  
‘Calm down, Moony. I’m not questioning your manhood. It’s just lunch. How about here?’ James pointed up at a pub sign, coming to halt before him.  
  
‘Well, you know the potatoes will be good anywhere with an O’Connor’s in the name.’ Remus smiled and they gave a quick glance around before ducking inside together. Once the boys were settled at a table and James was expressing his affinity for muggle contraptions while examining a napkin dispenser, a bar maid smiled at them and made her way over.  
  
‘Hiya lads, what can I do ya for?’ She was a pretty, young muggle, and her smile lingered on both James and Remus equally.  
  
‘Two butterbeers, please!’  
  
Remus cleared his throat, ‘uh, he’s got a stutter. Just two pints of whatever bitter you have on tap.’  
  
The pretty brunette was looking at James like he’d sneezed on her, but she nodded to Remus and then set off to get their drinks.  
  
‘You’ll have to handle this stuff, Moony. Lily made me change some over, but I just have no idea how it works.’ James sighed, opening his hands after pulling them from his pockets and letting a small mound of pounds and pence fall to the table.  
  
Remus almost choked on his own spit, realising how much money was now before them. He quickly bundled it into a pile and looked around to make sure no one had seen.  
  
‘Honesty, Prongs. You don’t just throw money around like that. You’ll get knocked off in an alley when you leave.’  
  
‘Oh? Is that a lot?’ James genuinely looked taken aback.  
  
‘I can kind of understand why people call you obnoxious behind your back.’ Remus shook his head with a breath of a laugh.  
  
‘They say it to my face.’ James mused, ‘Speaking of being obnoxiously wealthy, did I tell you Mum opened an account for me?’  
  
‘No.’ Remus slumped slightly. He knew it was no fault of James that his family had money. He would never hold it against his friend for not knowing that talking about money in such a fashion probably wasn’t highly recommended around penniless company.  
  
‘Well she has. She told me she wants to sell our house, and move back to the hollow now that Dad’s gone.’  
  
‘Oh?’  
  
‘Yeah. I mean, we only moved out to the country because Dad loved the gardens so much. And it’s just too big a house to keep for just her.’  
  
‘Just her?’ Remus’s eyebrows disappeared under his sandy brown hair.  
  
‘Yeah. She’s given me an account because she thinks it’s time I get my own place. Like Padfoot has, you know?’  
  
‘She’s probably sick of you and Lily canoodling all over her furniture.’ Remus laughed, watching as the bar maid headed their way with two pints.  
  
‘There’s more to it than that.’ James smirked, examining the coasters.  
  
‘You wantin’ something to eat, lads?’ The bar maid placed their drinks down, smiling a twinkling, blue-eyed smile James’s way.  
  
‘Just two serves of fish and chips, please.’  
  
‘Fascinating.’ James picked the glass up that the bar maid had put down before him, and marvelled at the dark colour of the ale.  
  
‘Is he all right?’ The brunette smiled at Remus and he returned it.  
  
‘He doesn’t get out much.’ Remus supplied effortlessly and she left them to place their order with the kitchen.  
  
‘Ugh, muggles don’t have tastebuds. Do they know this stuff is terrible?’ James pinched his nose after taking a decent gulp of the bitter ale and placing it back down on the cardboard coaster, ‘but as I was saying, Mum wants me to get my own place. And I was thinking I’d keep close by to her. I don’t want her getting lonely.’  
  
This was the side of James Potter that most people were never entirely aware of. The soft, loyal, kind-hearted side that would fight for the people he loved and did anything he could to make others happy. He would get up to mischief at school just to entertain Sirius. He would dress up in fancy robs to appease his mother. He would do just about anything to put a smile on Lily Evans face. He was an exceptional wizard and Remus knew he was lucky to have bunked up with him in his first year. If it weren’t for James Potter, he surely wouldn’t have the friends he had today.  
  
‘You’re lucky. Getting a place of your own. That would be amazing. Me, I can’t find any work. I mean, I know right now I shouldn’t really be looking. We’re spending most of our time with Order missions. But it’s weird, not having any idea what the future holds.’ Remus rambled looking off into the distance.  
  
‘She’s got a smile for you, the girl behind the bar.’ He continued, turning back to look at James, but James had a stern look on his face.  
  
‘You’ll get a job, Moony. You will.’ James had a determination on his face unrivalled by Filch on a mission to convict Peeves. Remus just laughed at him and took a sip of his ale.  
  
‘So you think you’ll get a place, sorry… where?’ Remus changed the subject, not enjoying the conversation teetering around himself and his misfortunes.  
  
‘The Hollow? Godric’s Hollow? You’ve never heard of it?’ James’s attention span was so easily swayed.  
  
‘I think I have. In books.’ Remus mused.  
  
‘Yeah. My family has lived there for generations. It's pretty cool. But the land aspects aren't nearly as big as ours. That's why mum and dad chose to move out to Tutshill when they found out they were having me. Sort of like a retirement slash we're having a baby kind of move.'   
  
Remus nodded along, listening to James speak. It was nice to be able to have a day with just James. Most of their group’s interactions had now turned into meeting up at Order gatherings or on missions. Peter and Sirius were currently out on a mission to gather information about a family connected to Sirius's, concerning something that had intrigued Dumbledore. Lily was, as he had just found out, catching up with Marlene and Mary. He knew Ali was still running some kind of errands for Dumbledore, but he was never entirely sure what those errands were.   
  
Everyone had their place. But Remus was so unsure of his own. He was happy that the Order was fulfilling the need-to-help-others that was always quite dominate within him. But there were so many pitfalls in his life lately he was starting to lag under the despondency.  
  
As the day continued on and the boys finished their lunch, James dragged them back into the throngs of muggles to go looking through stores. When Remus decided to take James across town on the underground, he had a hard time keeping him quiet while he marvelled at all the muggle touches, like the automated ticket stalls and vending machines.  
  
Before they got to the station Remus was aiming for, James noticed something and slipped off the train, calling out to Remus to follow.  
  
‘What is it?’ Remus asked, as they stood alone in an eerily empty platform.  
  
‘I… thought I saw-’ James turned back and forth before shrugging, ‘must have just been a muggle in a long coat. Let’s have a look around anyway!’ He pepped straight back up and headed for the stairs.  
  
Remus was too polite to mention that they were a good half an hours walk from where he was trying to get them and so he just chose to allow James his exploration. Once they were above ground, he realised they were in a place he hadn’t been before. They walked for a few blocks before a dazzling districted came into view.  
  
‘Oh, I think this is Hatton Garden,’ Remus laughed, ‘this probably isn’t somewhere for you to grab some new shirts, Prongs.’  
  
‘No, wait! That one, can we just pop in there?’ James face lit up as he noticed a sign that read “wedding rings” and Remus came to a halt.  
  
‘James?’ He turned to look at his friend and James just lifted a finger to his lips.  
  
‘Just having a look.’ He winked and headed for the store entrance. The smile that exploded on Remus’s face jittered as he laughed with his bubbling happiness. He knew James and Lily were perfect for one another. But they were still very young. He hadn’t expected this from James. But he certainly welcomed the sweet distraction from the chaos that was all of their lives.

*

By the time night had fallen, Remus and James were back at James’s house, with James’s pockets having returned a lot lighter than when they had left. James had acted as if they were just looking, but he had bought a ring in no time at all. He said it just “screamed Lily” and declared he had to have it. The whole process took a little longer than anticipated, as they had to return to Diagon Alley, to change over money at Gringotts. But they managed to get back before the store closed and needless to say the gentleman selling the ring almost lost his footing when James paid in cash.  
  
Over the course of the day James had explained to Remus that he wanted to ask Lily to move in with him, if he was to be getting his own place. And as he knew Lily’s parents to be quite religious, he thought this would be the best way to go about it. Of course his mother was in on the whole thing. Them getting a place together, that was. James was going to surprise them both with the proposal. “Mum will get as much of a kick out of this as Lily will” he had put it.  
  
The day had put Remus into a blissful state of mind and he realised he hadn’t stopped smiling since that morning.  
  
Just when Remus was saying he was going to call it a day and head home, Lily apparated into James bedroom and collided with him.  
  
‘Oh, Moony! I’m so sorry!’ Lily said from the floor, across from where Remus had ended up. Remus enjoyed that Lily had come to adopt their nicknames for each other, now.  
  
‘Hey babe!’ James shouted, kicking up his sheets underneath him and making a fuss to run over to his desk. Remus knew it was because he was hiding the ring he had had out on the bed just moments before.  
  
‘Don’t worry about it.’ Remus spoke softly trying to get back to his feet but Lily inched over to him and put a hand down on his shoulder.  
  
‘Actually… can I have a word to you? Outside?’ Remus looked up at Lily. Her eyes were the most radiant shade of green. It was such a magnificent contrast to how dark red her hair was.  
  
‘Uh, sure.’ Remus replied, thinking that whatever it was Lily wanted to talk to him about, it might give James extra time to get himself in order before they came back.  
  
They got to their feet and left James behind in the room and walked out into the hall and down further to where the stairs were. Lily took a deep breath and Remus realised how concerned she looked.  
  
‘Is anything wrong?’  
  
Her eyes flickered up to him, ‘I just got back from Marlene’s house.’  
  
Remus’s jaw squared at that. He had never been over to Marlene’s house. She had gone to his now and then. But mostly they had dated at school and this second time around wasn’t exactly conventional dating. Remus just thought Marlene was defensive of her home.  
  
‘I’ve never been before.’ Lily continued, ‘I’ve never met any of her family besides little greetings on the platform at the start of terms. I just… when we were there today, I met two of her brothers.’  
  
Remus knew Marlene was the only girl out of her siblings. She never went into detail about her family members. But Remus had figured out that she had three older brothers.  
  
Tears welled in Lily’s eyes, ‘I know why she- she freaked out. When she found out about… you.’  
  
For the time being, Remus had lost his words. He just watched on as Lily held her emotions at bay and slipped her hand inside his own.  
  
‘Remus, one of her brothers... one of her brothers was killed by a werewolf. When they were all little. He was the eldest. I saw a photo of all of them together and when I asked who the two I hadn’t met were… she was off with Mary. Her brothers told me. They said she doesn’t ever talk about him. They were really close before it happened and-’ Lily’s words trailed off as the tears began to streak her cheeks.  
  
Remus felt every morsel of happiness the day had brought him being beaten into a ball inside him and attacked. His nostrils flared as he tried to think of something to say. Nothing was coming to mind. He felt the ache in his neck returning and realised he wasn’t breathing. He drew in a rattling breath.  
  
‘Thanks for letting me know,’ Remus nodded to her and Lily tried to put a smile on her face in an effort to comfort him. But they both knew that there was no point.  
  
This information had delivered the final nail in the coffin. He felt as if someone had taken a bucket of guilt and doused him in it. He bit his lip to the point of it drawing blood and swore.  
  
‘Sorry. I think- I think I’m going to head off.’ He offered her a smile, but it was the hollowest smile he had given all day.  
  
Lily just nodded at him before Remus concentrated enough to disapparate and reappeared in his bedroom alone.  
  
He felt tears stinging his eyes as he sat down on his bed. He lifted his hands up and pulled his fingers through his hair before letting out an almighty curse, allowing his anger to boil over.  
  
‘Honey?’ His mother opened his door and peered inside.  
  
‘I’m a monster, Mum.’ Remus pushed his palms into his eyes and tried to keep his emotions in check around his mother.  
  
‘You're not a monster, Remus.’ Hope bit back, coming further into the room.  
  
‘I am! I am. I’m just like the others. The murderers.’ Remus felt his hands being pulled away from his face only to see his mother hunched down below him, looking up into his eyes.  
  
‘You are no murderer. You are a kind boy with a darkness. That darkness doesn’t control you.’  
  
Remus, in his moment of weakness, sank down off his bed onto his knees and closed his arms around his aging, but still beautiful mother.  
  
'My sweet boy, what's brought all this on again?'  
  
‘Her brother was killed by someone like me.’ He whispered, clutching her, ‘She could barely stand to touch me. I should have known.’  
  
He felt his mother’s arms grip him as she deciphered the information he had given her. It didn’t take her long.  
  
‘Remus John Lupin. You are not, and will never be, the shortcomings of those that share your condition. You are my baby boy. And you are just as perfect now, as the day you came into this world. My heart breaks every time you pin yourself down and try to bare the weight of every other misfortune around you. The only thing you should be taking from this, is that Marlene loved you enough to try and see past losing her brother, to be with you.  
  
               ‘So maybe it’s time for you to both stop torturing yourselves. You haven’t been happy for months and can I be selfish enough to say, I just want to see you smiling again?’ Hope pulled her son back and brushed the hair from his face, the same way she used to when he was just a tiny boy and was crying about his fear of the moon.  
  
‘This isn’t either of your faults.’ She continued, kissing his forehead, ‘and you’ve both tried.’  
  
Remus nodded, shutting his eyes and curling back up into his mother’s warmth. Hope’s bottom lip trembled with the pain she could feel radiating from her son as she pulled her finger tips up and down his back, trying to utmost to calm him.  
  
‘You both tried.’


	74. The summer of 1979

‘Peter, what is on your face? Honestly,’ Ali shook her head hunching over where Peter was seated, wiping something black off his cheek while Peter scrunched up his face.

 

‘ _Peter, what is on your face? Honestly_ ,’ Sirius and James repeated, reenacting Ali’s previous motions then laughing at where Peter was left looking embarrassed. 

 

‘James Potter! Get yourself together. You have a hundred people waiting out there for you,’ Ali shook her head at the boys as Remus tended to their dress robs.

 

‘It’s fine Ali, I’ll make sure they’re out on time.’ Remus provided in an attempt to calm her. Since she’d graduated and no longer had an outlet for her constant need for order, events such as these put her back into her bossy moods. 

 

‘Ali!’ Lily’s voice sounded frantic from the room over and Ali smacked Sirius away on her way out of the room as he went in for a hug.

 

‘You deserved that.’ Remus chuckled as he continued to use the Sleekeazy potion on James hair, where he’d sat him down in front of the mirror of the vanity. 

 

As Ali made it to the room across the hall where Lily was dressed in a modest, white lace-gown, Mary and Marlene looked to her for guidance.

 

‘What’s wrong?’

 

‘One of the buttons just popped off the dress.’ Mary’s sentence floated out so fluidly it took a moment for Lily’s wail to reach a frequency that was audible to human ears.

 

‘Really? A button?’ Ali shook her head walking over to where Lily had slumped onto Mrs Potter’s bed, ‘three _witches_ are worried over a rogue button?’ Ali whipped out her wand and uttered the incantation and the button was back in its place in seconds. She then made quick work doing up the rest of the bodice up. 

 

Ali shot a look at Marlene and Mary, ‘It’s fine now Lily. No need to fret. Everything is coming together so nicely.’ Ali hooked an arm around the redhead and rubbed her shoulder, sitting on the bed beside her. She flicked her wand towards the pile of fresh cut flowers and they began arranging themselves into piles of purple, pink, red and white bouquets. 

 

They hadn’t even started on Lily’s make up or hair yet, Ali had been helping Mrs Potter with the set up downstairs since yesterday and only ventured upstairs to check and make sure the boys weren’t causing any kind of trouble. It was when Mrs Potter slipped into the room that Lily’s face broke and the tears started to flow.

 

‘My sister’s not coming,’ Lily admitted raising her face to the ceiling, ‘Mum and Dad are too sick over in Africa to make it home. I have no one to walk me down the aisle and I couldn’t invite any of my extended family to a magical ceremony. I’m the only Evans here,’ Lily’s last word contorted into a howl as she swooped around into Ali’s shoulder and Ali looked up horrified, having no idea where to go from here. 

 

Mary and Marlene pulled up short but Mrs Potter was quick to act, ‘Your sister is a mean woman to deny you of a family touch simply because of her own ideals, Lily.’ The old lady settled down to Lily’s left side and coddled her over, away from where Ali was trying and failing to comfort her. 

 

Mrs Potter crooned and lulled her, rocking and holding her tight. ‘This was all thrown together so fast after James proposed to you, it’s not a wonder your parents couldn’t make it back in time. This has nothing to do with how much they love you, or how much they want to be here, my sweet girl.’

 

Ali stood up and huddled with Mary and Marlene, watching as Mrs Potter succeeded yet again in calming Lily down. Last week when Lily had discovered over lunch that her parents had come down with some kind of “jungle fever” on one of their missionary visits and wouldn’t be well enough to travel for some weeks, Lily started blubbering to the point that James couldn’t console her. Sirius and Aaliyah were panic-stricken in the corner of the kitchen where they had been helping with wedding preparations. 

 

The mounting death toll in their morning prophets and the gloom surrounding them was what had inspired James and Lily to want to be married so fast. Some beacon of hope and love in an otherwise perfectly dark period of time was exactly what they all needed. James had proposed to Lily on an ordinary night. He’d been shopping with Remus the day before and being a man of spontaneity, if nothing else, proposed to Lily after taking her to their favourite, muggle restaurant for dinner. 

 

They decided to have a simple wedding at the Potter house as tribute to James’s father and the garden he loved so much. It was the perfect way to say goodbye to the home. Most of the furniture had now been moved to their new places in Godric’s Hollow. Mrs Potter’s little cottage wasn’t far from the one James had taken up residence in. And the house was now filled with transfigured seating and trestle tables filled with food downstairs.

 

As Lily’s tears subsided a thought struck Ali, ‘Mrs Potter, maybe you could walk Lily down the aisle?’ She suggested thinking the mother of the groom didn’t have any other part in the festivities.

 

‘Oh Euphie, would you?’ Lily’s tears stopped and her rosy red cheeks shined in the sun dribbling in through the windows. 

 

‘Of course I would,’ Mrs Potter let out a hearty laugh as tears of joy welled in her eyes. Ali, Marlene and Mary visibly relaxed after that and when Ali mentioned the need for them to be getting ready, Lily agreed, having calmed down enough to be coherent. 

 

As Mary was fussing over Lily’s eye make up and Mrs Potter started to fret over what she was wearing not being fancy enough, Marlene got to work on Lily’s hair. The length had tripled in since their earlier school days when Lily use to sport a bob. Marlene had always had long blonde locks and so she was in her element. Ali took the moment of solitude to slip out of the room and go check on the guests downstairs.

 

She, James and Sirius had worked hard the day before to get things just the way Lily had been talking about over the weeks they had been planning the event. In between Order missions and with attacks becoming more and more frequent, they hadn’t had much time to put aside for it. The affair wasn’t even close to extravagant, but the elegant touches brought a smile to her face as she peered around at all the guests conversing in higher spirits than they usually would be, given the state of the world. 

 

They had made up fresh bunches of flowers to display all around the home with the same colour scheme as the bouquets upstairs. James and Sirius had found a charm that attracted fireflies to buzz around the arrangements. The house looked lovely, but it was the gardens that brought out the real show of magical talents.

 

Ali brushed by Sturgis Podmore talking to Dedalus Diggle and caught sight of her father and Tucker hovering around by the back doors that opened out to the gardens. She said a quick hello to Minerva McGonagall who had just arrived and was looking almost instantly tired of Horace Slughorn’s conversation. 

 

‘Dad!’ She waved him down, joining Christian in his conversation with Mr Bones and his wife. Tucker grabbed Ali’s hand in his and stood still between them, looking very smart in his little wine coloured dress robes. 

 

‘How’s everything coming along up there?’ Christian asked brightly and Ali made a face that said it wasn’t perfect, but not in any real danger.

 

‘Beautiful day for it though,’ Edgar motioned to the rare show of almost cloud-free skies.

 

‘It’s so nice to be out for a wedding.’ Mrs Bones smiled as their daughter, not much off Tucker’s age ran up and tugged on her dress. As she knelt down to speak to her Ali looked around to make sure of the last few bits and pieces.

 

She pulled Tucker up onto her hip as he preened her light pink dress straps to sit better against her clavicle. She was ticking off a mental checklist. The aisle was perfect, just green grass with painted white, wooden chairs for the guests. The gazebo was transformed into the alter and there were little sprites darting around the levitating candles. The fountain off to the left side had been charmed by James to look as if it was flowing with gold instead of water. 

 

Ali made to put Tucker down so he could join the Bones children where three of the oldest were chasing the angry little gnomes around the garden beds. Tucker gave her his best ‘unimpressed’ face before walking off to join their father again. Tucker was quite good friends with the Bones children, but his current attire did not permit him to play in dirt. He had told Ali this earlier. 

 

Gideon and Fabian Prewett had just arrived with Ali’s neighbours, Molly and Arthur Weasley from up the road. Ali waved over to them as they came around the back gate and into the garden.

 

‘Ali, this is our sister Molly and her husband, Arthur.’ Gideon introduced.

 

‘Molly and I have actually met,’ Ali nodded to Molly and gave a bright smile to the two babies she had in either arm. Ali didn’t go into detail about why they had met, or that the poor woman had found her two eldest sons at Aaliyah’s house after hours of searching for them one afternoon. Ali had told the boys quite a few times to go home and let their mother know where they were but the response she received each time was ‘Mum’s got her hands full, it’s fine.’ 

 

‘Oh and how are you, Aaliyah?’ Molly had a weary smile and Ali wasn’t surprised. Arthur had another toddler in his arms and the two other red-haired boys clutching onto her dress, Ali knew well.

 

‘Bill, Charlie,’ Ali knelt down, ‘Tucker’s just over there if you want to go and say hello?’ All she had to do was point and Charlie took off and Bill, who was more calculating, wasn’t far behind. ‘I feel like I couldn’t say stressed in front of you, if I wanted to Molly.’ Ali stood tall again, relieving Molly of one of the babies and touching his nose as he giggled at her.

 

‘Oh, thank Merlin for you. He’s the easier of the two, though. My little George.’ Molly supplied heaving the other baby higher on her hip as Ali brushed the baby George’s flaming red hair out of his eyes.

 

‘Go take a seat, Molly. Arthur you can pop him down over there, where Edgar’s little one is playing. It’s toddler-proof. Over by the drinks station.’ 

 

‘Doesn’t that sound perfect,’ Arthur gave Ali a squeeze of the shoulder and he, Gideon and Fabian chuckled as they headed off in that direction where Ali had last seen Mundungus Fletcher sniffing about. She introduced Molly to Mrs Bones and said she was happy to look after George for a while before the ceremony started. Molly looked like she could have used an afternoon off.

 

‘Come on Georgie,’ Ali tickled George the same way she used to tickle Tucker when he was this small. The baby’s laughter so light and pure. She almost forgot she was trying to organise a wedding and needed to get back to the bride. 

 

Before she climbed the stairs she grabbed an ice-cream cone from one of the trestle tables where they had them lined up to cool down the guests. The cooling charm had all the cones in immaculate condition from when they had set it up the night prior. Little George was sticking out his tongue for Ali to allow him licks of the ice cream as she took the stairs slowly and laughed at his adorable chubby cheeks. 

 

Ali cried out as she reached the top, being so focussed on George she hadn’t noticed another, fully-grown baby, lying in wait for her. Sirius hollered and scared them both but George merely giggled once he recovered from his shock. Ali on the other hand got a glint in her eye.

 

‘Is there some for me?’ Sirius asked looking at the ice cream cone and imitating the baby by poking his tongue out and closing his eyes. Ali shoved the cone right into the middle of his face and she and baby-George erupted into laughter. 

 

‘You play dirty, Adams. I cant retaliate when you’re holding an infant,’ Sirius looked down at him, ice cream dripping from his nose and George thought it was the funniest thing in the world. ‘Who’s this little guy anyway? You look like you’re related to the Weasley boys.’

 

‘Isn’t he gorgeous?’ Ali said placing kisses all over Sirius’s face, cleaning off most of the ice cream with her lips. ‘He has a twin brother downstairs. They’re Charlie and Bill’s brothers.’

 

‘Ooo, double trouble.’ Sirius put a finger out and George grabbed it happily, a gigantic smile grew from ear to ear as he stared at Sirius’s hair, swaying with his movements. 

 

‘Is James ready?’ Ali asked, making sure Sirius looked okay. 

 

‘Yep, we’ll head down in a minute, so make sure Evans is looking her best.’ Sirius winked at her and waved his finger around gaining a gaggle of noises from George. 

 

‘On my way!’ Ali spun George around so he wouldn’t notice to loss of Sirius’s finger, leaving her boyfriend to duck back inside what used to be James’s bedroom.

 

‘Lily? How are we going in here?’ Ali popped her head inside hoping there weren’t anymore tears to deal with. She was met with a flurry of questions from Lily and Mrs Potter about the downstairs area, which she was able to tick off as all being right on course. Marlene had done a stunning, loose fishtail braid and swept the hair off Lily’s face. Her make up wasn’t perfect, but it was tasteful and light. But no matter what, no one could say Lily wasn’t stunning.

 

They had decided on an afternoon ceremony, as the summer days were hot for them. Aaliyah had told them they weren’t even close to the ones they used to experience in Australia but regardless, they didn’t want anyone fainting. Especially from the bridal party.Lily and Mrs Potter both flocked to George, who lapped up the attention. He was a little cheeky, but a very good baby. While they finished things up he sat on Mrs Potter’s bed with a hair brush, watching as the girls moved around doing last minute touches. 

 

Marlene, Mary and Ali all had different dresses, in the same light pink tone. Lily’s dress was a long sleeved lace above the bust, but below was a flowing white satin. She looked breathtaking. Molly found them just before they were coming downstairs and took George back to his brother who was crying over the loss of his favourite person. Apparently George was a lot more carefree but Fred couldn’t handle much distance from him. 

 

They started the ceremony as the sun began to set. They had a band playing beautiful classic music as the boys each escorted the girls down the aisle. Mary and Peter came first, Mary being only slightly shorter than Pete. Remus and Ali were next and Ali happily took up Remus’s arm as he offered it. Marlene had always been Lily’s best friend and seeing as she and Remus had broken things off a few weeks earlier, Lily and Ali had come to the pairing decision together. 

 

Ali looked up at James, smirking at the alter and knew he wouldn’t be so smug in a couple of moments time. As they watching Sirius escorting Marlene and took their places, the song changed to the chorus of Wagner’s, Lohengrin, keeping with tradition and Lily appeared by the double back doors. Mrs Potter escorted her and when Ali took a sidelong look at James, his little smirk had shattered. Triumph. 

 

She didn’t realise he was going to cry, however. Lily was almost at the alter when James had to remove his glasses and Sirius elbowed him to keep it together. Ali hadn’t felt so happy in years. As James and Lily were led through their vows, Fred made a particularly loud gaggle of noises closely followed by Molly’s voice hushing him. Everyone laughed and as the last reaches of sun fell away, enchanted fireflies gathered providing ample lighting and the most spectacular ambience. When Lily and James kissed, all the guests cheered and carried on for well over five minutes. 

 

They carried on straight from the ceremony into the reception, transforming the backyard into a formation of tables under the stars from where the aisle and chairs had been previously. Ali kept catching herself smiling without realising. Everything felt so perfect. Remus and Sirius were carrying on at the bridal table about the lasting effects of fire whiskey. Peter was keeping to himself mostly but smiled at Ali each time she spared a glance his way. 

 

James and Lily were in each others arms on the dance floor and the way Lily was staring into her husbands eyes was enchanting to behold. Her earlier tears were a distant memory. Christian was dancing with Tucker, Bill, Charlie and Melissa, Edgar’s daughter. She had to laugh when she saw Moody smacking Mundungus’s hand away from the crystal glasses. Dumbledore managed to make it to the reception, having missed the ceremony and was waltzing with Dorcas Meadowes. Mrs Potter was too busy with Molly’s three youngest boys to be doing much else. The old lady was suddenly thirty years younger, swinging little Percy around and coddling Fred and George. Arthur, Gideon and Fabian were talking closely with Frank and Alice Longbottom and one of Christian and Arthur’s co-workers, Cornelius Fudge. 

 

Ali was sure that Lily and James didn’t know all the guests personally. But to have a wedding, such a beautiful ceremony of love and trust, it seemed there were many that wanted to have a day off from the torture they were all enduring. Ali looked back and watched the photographer captured a picture of James, Lily and Sirius, laughing away like nothing could ever go wrong. She smiled and made her was over to them and Sirius scooped her into an embrace.

 

‘There’s my beautiful bridesmaid,’ He kissed her and she laughed at him. 

 

‘Let’s cut this cake!’ James announced, as a couple of the caterers levitated out the gloriously large cake. It was the one thing Lily and James allowed Mrs Potter to go ‘all out’ with. And she took that as gospel. The cake looked like it could feed a small army. James used his wand with Lily and they slid through it, feeding each other a bite and trying their best not to break into fits of laughter. 

 

As the night wore on, Sirius caught Ali in a yawn and pulled her into his arms. ‘You wanna get out of here?’ 

 

‘Not with riff raff like you, what _would_ the people say,’ Ali played and pushed him away making off for another glass of gillywater.

 

‘Hey,’ Sirius pulled her back and clasped onto her. He brought his face close to hers and smiled, ‘I love you.’ It was a whisper. Ali knew he wasn’t the best at saying it. But with everyone around them in such good spirits, everyone was doing things they usually wouldn’t have the courage to. James had roped poor Professor McGonagallinto dancing while Lily was laughing with Slughorn. McGonagall’s clear shock at James’s dance moves were giving everyone a good laugh and after a while she eased into it. 

 

‘I wish we could stay like this forever,’ Ali whispered. Sirius was holding her around the waist from behind as they watched the party goers getting drunker, dancing and carrying on. She reached a hand up and pulled it down the length of his face and shut her eyes, allowing herself to just bask in the moment. Sirius laid a kiss to her neck and gripped onto her tighter. 

 

‘Come and dance!’ James roared, roping Ali in and dragging her onto the dance floor. 

 

Sirius grabbed Lily and Ali struggled to get away from James. Remus and Marlene set their differences aside for a song and swayed together in an embrace. Peter and Mary stepped on each other’s feet and laughter continued to echo off the surrounding walls and well kept bushes and trees. 

 

As the early hours of the morning led to those with little ones heading home and the bride and groom getting ready to depart, they gathered on the porch to see them off. James made Lily climb into his broomstick so he could fly her to their new home, in Godric’s Hollow. As they all cheered and waved them away, Ali watched Sirius pick up an exhausted Tucker. 

 

‘We’ll deal with this all another day,’ Mrs Potter laughed looking at the mess and made her way around, helping everyone collect their things. 

 

‘Let’s go home.’ Christian found them and after a few chaste goodbyes, they used the Potter’s fireplace to Floo home. 

 

Ali felt the need to shower to wash the make up and hair products out and when she was finally ready for bed, she found Tucker and Sirius curled up together in hers. 

 

‘Goodnight, Dad.’ She whispered down the hall and she heard him reciprocate sleepily. 

 

She climbed in between the two boys and Sirius curled up against her and she was asleep within moments. 


	75. Separate discoveries

Ali scanned the dingy wizarding pub with her eyes. From her research, she knew it to be a place frequented by undesirables and was hoping to locate a certain one. She had been dropping into a number of these places for a last few months trying to track him down, but he was becoming more elusive than Dumbledore.

 

When her eyes fell on Regulus, sitting alone in a corner hugging a glass, she almost didn’t believe it. She pushed through a group of burly, dangerous looking wizards without stopping to think it might be wiser to go unnoticed. One muttered after her but she wasn’t paying them an ounce of attention. 

 

She pulled up an empty chair at Regulus’s table and he snapped up to look at her, fear etched into all his features. When he realised who it was, he visibly relaxed. 

 

‘Well hello to you, too.’ Ali rolled her eyes. 

 

‘How did you find me?’ Regulus gave her a side-long glance before taking another deep drink of his dark ale.

 

‘Wasn’t hard,’ she lied, ‘I just asked around about where the worlds worst friends went to be jerks and somebody gave me this address.’ 

 

Regulus laughed in a way that gave Ali a chill. When she looked at him, he was staring directly at her over his glass. He looked different close-up. He looked thinner, like he hadn’t had a decent meal in months. 

 

‘Are you all right?’ Ali asked, breaking out of her frustration with him.

 

‘You need to go.’

 

‘Why?’

 

‘Because.’

 

‘Sorry, but that’s not really a concrete enough answer for me to leave after I’ve been trying to track you down for the past five months.’

 

‘Go away.’

 

‘No!’ Ali knocked over one of the empty glasses on the table in her lapse and it caused a few of the shady characters to spare a glance their way. Regulus almost hissed. 

 

‘Go outside. Walk down to the last shopfront and wait for me there. If we’re seen together-’ Regulus shook his head and stood up, having a little trouble staying completely straight. It was a shock for Ali to watch him even slightly swaying. He was always so regal in the way he held himself. Anything less than perfect was distressing.

 

She watched him proceed over to the bar and it looked as if he was settling his bill. When she took in the room she noticed more than one set of eyes on her and the nature of the situation sunk in. She stood and left as she was instructed. 

 

After fifteen minutes of waiting in the winter cold, wrapped in her thick coat and rubbing her gloved hands together for warmth, she thought maybe she’d been had. Until she noticed someone walking towards her at a peculiar pace, covered up in a long black coat and a thick, expensive looking green scarf.

 

Regulus grabbed her arm and led her down an alleyway of the backend East-London streets. Once out of sight Regulus unfurled his scarf and proceeded to wrap it around her and the warmth it provided instantly stopped her shivering. 

 

‘Thanks.’ 

 

‘Don’t mention it.’ Regulus fell back against the brickwork and kept his eye-line lowered.

 

‘Regulus…’

 

‘Why won’t you just give it up? Why can’t you just leave it alone, Adams?’ Regulus spat, bringing his hands up to rub over his rosy cheeks and eyes.

 

‘Why are you _avoiding me_?’ Ali bit back, ‘I’ve been writing you every week. I just want to make sure you’re okay.’

 

‘There’s just no reason for it. I’m sure Sirius has told you to stay the hell away from me?’ Ali noticed something change in his features as he asked this. She lost the edge to her accusations and took a deep breath.

 

‘No. He hasn’t. And even if he had, why would I listen to him? Being with someone and serving someone are very different things, Regulus.’

 

Regulus snorted, ‘thanks.’

 

‘Pardon?’ 

 

‘Like that wasn’t a reference to this,’ Regulus pulled back his left sleeve, faltering against the wall in the process. When Aaliyah’s eyes registered the dull mark on his inner forearm she inhaled audibly and covered her now open mouth. 

 

Regulus looked on as her emotions transformed from shock to a palpable sadness. It was in that moment that he realised his brother had not spoken his secret to anyone. Not even the girl he had watched Sirius follow around for the last two years of his school life. He was certain the reason Ali had been so hell bent on contacting him would have been due to Sirius letting her in on the worst decision he had ever made. 

 

He yanked his sleeve down and froze following the blow of what he had just revealed.

 

‘Regulus what have you done?’ Her question was so faint he wouldn’t have heard it had they not been so alone in the deserted lane.

 

He didn’t flinch when she grabbed a hold of the front of his robes and balled her little hands into fistfuls of the material. He was ready for her to hit him. He deserved it. After a moment, he wanted it. But Ali just used her position to pull her body into his as she started to cry. It drew him up short. She let her forehead rest against the bare curve of his neck and collarbone and wept. 

 

His right hand came up to grab a hold of the back of her coat and he felt tears welling in his eyes. His expression pulled taunt as he tried to keep himself together. But after a few moments, he too let forth the tears that were coming to him more and more frequently.

 

When Ali pulled back she looked like she was having a tough time settling on one emotion. Her anger and sadness were battling one another and Regulus waiting for one to stick. The sadness got the better of her and she released his coat to wipe her eyes.

 

‘A Death Eater?’ She whispered, ‘Are you really so-’ Ali stopped and had a sudden realisation as to why Dumbledore had tasked her with watching him. 

 

‘This is why Dumbledore’s told me to look out for you.’

 

‘He what?’ 

 

‘He told me to watch you. Since school. When? When did you get the mark?’ Ali searched Regulus’s perplexed face for answers.

 

‘I shouldn’t be talking about this Adams, I just… I thought you already knew.’ Regulus started to withdraw as footsteps could be heard crunching in the slush a short distance off.

 

‘I suspected you weren’t hanging with the right crowds, but I honestly expected more from you.’ Ali’s words were cold as she thought of her mother, ‘what would possess you? The Death Eaters are _murderers_.’

 

Regulus shushed her as he looked down the alley and held a hand over her mouth. 

 

‘It’s not safe here,’ He grabbed a hold of her hand and suddenly Ali felt a lurching feeling as they disapparated out of the alley and appeared in an upper-floor hallway. 

 

‘Master? Master Regulus, is that you?’ Ali barely registered the little voice as she tried to collect herself, holding her body up against a bannister. She hated it when people apparated her places without warning. It was a horrible sensation to not be prepared for.

 

‘Yes, Kreacher. It’s me.’ Regulus replied, ‘Is mother still at St Mungos?’

 

‘Yes, Master Regulus.’ The familiar house elf answered while taking a side-long glance at Ali.

 

‘Are we in your house?’ Ali asked, taking in the surroundings of the hall. It wasn’t at all welcoming. It was even worse than what she could recall of the entrance. The decor had the overwhelming feeling of being expensive enough that you might be yelled at simply for touching it. There were many portraits hung on the wallpapered walls and a reoccurring theme or serpents led Aaliyah to no longer need Regulus’s next reply.

 

‘Yes,’ he grabbed her hand and pulled her into a well-lit room that had a fire crackling away in the distance. It was a grand room, with massive windows, framed with heavy curtains. The fireplace was flanked with exquisite glass-front cabinets filled with a large assortment of objects. The thing that caught Ali’s immediate attention however was the one part of the room that wasn’t in immaculate condition. 

 

A tapestry. One so large it covered an entire wall. It would have been glorious to behold, had it not been marred with an assortment of burns. 

 

‘Kreacher could you grab us two drinks?’

 

‘Certainly, Master Regulus.’ The little pop the house elf made as he disapparated away snapped Ali’s attention off the curling, golden threads connecting the names she could see dating back to almost the middle-ages.

 

‘Adams, you can’t tell anyone.’

 

‘ _Black_ , I wouldn’t.’ Ali spat at him, shaking her head. ‘Death Eaters killed my mother.’ She stared at him, unblinking. 

 

Regulus slumped, ‘I know.’ He didn’t seem able to look at her as he lowered himself into one of the armchairs. Ali stayed standing.

 

‘It happened… your mother…’ He drew in a defeated breath, ‘it’s the reason I don’t want to be one anymore. Or one of many…’ Regulus seemed edgy as he said this. His eyes kept glancing towards the door.

 

‘Well, I’m so glad you’ve come to your senses,’ sarcasm had never been Ali’s strongest point, but it seemed common ground for her in this statement, ‘what exactly was it that made you think this would be a good day job?’

 

‘There are good things about it. You just don’t understand.’

 

‘Oh please, do enlighten me.’ Ali took a seat, her eyes still locked on him across from her.

 

‘I have my reasons. You have yours.’ Regulus tried to leave it at that, but as he looked up at Ali he could tell she wasn’t having it.

 

‘We shouldn’t have to _hide_ , Adams. Why are we hiding? I hate the statute of secrecy. We _are_ superior to the muggles. Why they are so important that they get to dictate _our_ way of life?’ He rubbed his temples as his alcohol induced state began to clear more than he would have liked. 

 

‘That’s it? You want to be out and about in muggle London and use _accio_ salt shaker? So you join a fucking _fascist regime_?’

 

‘Don’t you think the statute of secrecy is killing our way of life? Don’t you want to perform magic without making sure the poor muggles don’t see and get too scared?’ 

 

‘Not if it means ruining their way of life,’ Ali snapped and Regulus seemed to sit up straighter. ‘We _are_ superior to them in ways, Regulus. That’s _why_ we hide. They burnt us alive because they couldn’t comprehend magic. They _cannot_ handle the notion. And they’re growing stronger. If we were to reveal ourselves, what good would that do?’

 

‘We could beat anything they throw at us!’ Regulus fought, ‘They don’t scare me-’

 

‘So you would happily _murder_ living things so you could do magic? So you could conjure a glass of water in a muggle restaurant? You would go to _war_?’

 

‘Well… no.’

 

‘Because that’s what would happen. The muggles would be scared, just like they used to be, and they would retaliate because that’s all they know. And they would probably kill a lot of good witches and wizards… before we wiped out their armies. Hundreds and thousands of them.’ Ali just watched as Regulus’s demeanour softened.

 

‘Mostly men, but then you’d have your kind that would happily murder the women, and then no doubt the children, too.’

 

‘I wouldn’t-’

 

‘No, but you’re surrounded by those that _would_.’ They both fell silent as Ali’s words rang true. The fire crackled and they could hear the jittering of glasses against a silver tray as Kreacher made his way up the stairs. 

 

‘My mother died saving a group of muggle _children,_ Regulus. Don’t say they wouldn’t.’

 

Regulus lost his words as Kreacher entered the drawing room and set the drinks down before them. He bowed himself out before Regulus continued. 

 

‘I didn’t realise what they were capable of when I joined, Ali.’ As his blue eyes found hers she could see the regret evident on his face, ‘Just know that.’

 

‘Can you get out?’ Ali watched him grab the drink and take a rather large gulp. 

 

‘It might be possible. If I ran… and kept on running. But then my family… they wouldn’t be safe. And there’s something… I think… there’s reasons I have to stay.’ Regulus looked down at that and drew in a deep breath.

 

‘You haven’t…’ Ali contemplated her words, not totally sure she wanted to know, ‘have you… tortured people? …have you killed?’ 

 

Ali watched him, hopeful of his answer, but preparing herself for the worst.

 

‘I haven’t killed anyone.’ Regulus’s lips tightened as he looked down out of shame for what he had not answered.

 

Ali picked up her drink and tried to down it, to rid her mind of the thoughts of her friend torturing innocents. She got halfway through it before she realised how much alcohol it consisted of and almost choked, putting the rest back on the table. 

 

‘Ugh! What on earth is this swill?’ 

 

Regulus snorted out a laugh and rubbed his eyes. 

 

‘You can’t tell anyone, Ali. Not Dumbledore, not anyone.’ 

 

‘I’m pretty sure Dumbledore is well aware. Sorry to burst your bubble.’ Ali wiped the remains of the drink from her chin, ‘how does Sirius know?’ She asked as their previous conversation came back to her.

 

‘I really thought he told you,’ was Regulus’s only response.

 

Before Ali could pester him for any more information, they heard the front door opening and a shrilling voice ring out.

 

‘Kreacher!’

 

‘And that’s your cue to leave.’ Regulus reached out and downed the rest of Ali’s drink before tapping the glass into non-existence, ‘can you apparate?’

 

‘This isn’t over, Regulus. I meant what I said. If you’re having second-thoughts about all this… come to me. I want to help.’ Ali kept her voice hushed as Regulus used her coat to pull her into a standing position. 

 

‘I don’t want to drag you into anything dangerous, Ali.’ Regulus rested his hands on her shoulders, ‘and I told you… there’s some things I still have to… do. I just… I need to be sure of some stuff before I go defecting.’ 

 

‘So you’re not loyal to them?’ Ali was upset with herself for sounding so desperate as she unravelled his scarf and gave it back to him. 

 

‘KREACHER!’

 

‘You need to _go_!’ Regulus hurried her and Ali disapparated away at the exact moment Kreacher apparated to Walburga’s side.

 

‘Yes, Mistress?’ Regulus heard from the floor below and sighed of relief as his mother began demanding things of the elf. 

 

*

 

Remus looked on as Sirius held a wand to the neck of the wizard secured below him. 

 

‘Sirius, don’t you think you’re getting a little too “bad Auror” right now?’ Remus would play along as the better behaved counterpart on the missions in which Dumbledore required them to procure any information. 

 

They had found a small group of Voldemort’s followers terrorising a house full of muggles hosting their daughters eleventh birthday party. The little girl was showing signs of magical ability which made them a very big target. When Dumbledore had sent word of the mission via owl, Sirius had jumped at the opportunity to take it and Remus wasn’t entirely sure why. 

 

They arrived and made quick work of the first two Death Eaters they found. While interrogating the third for a lead on a missing witch from the ministry, Sirius seemed to know something Remus didn’t. 

 

The thing that was worrying Remus wasn’t how angry Sirius was getting, rather it was how calm he seemed to be, clutching a fistful of the terrified wizards robes while digging his wand into his throat. 

 

‘Just tell me where he’s going to strike next, Eleos. Tell me where your little extremist buddy Jim’s going to _be_.’

 

Remus had heard him mention this “Jim” more than once now and wasn’t sure where he’d gotten the name from, exactly. He and Sirius had gotten the same written brief from Dumbledore. 

 

Remus looked back at the cowering family and the six little girls huddled together in the hall and knew they had to wrap this up, information gathered or not.

 

‘Sirius. We have to get out of here before the ministry turns up.’ Remus urged and the family all shrieked as Sirius dropped his wand and punched the man in the face.

 

‘Tell me where he’ll will attack next!’ Sirius landed another punch and the screams were almost as bad as the crunching sound the wizard’s face made against the linoleum.

 

‘Stop!’ The wizard looked over at his unconscious, restrained counterparts. ‘A festival.’ He gave up, fearful of receiving another fist to the face. ‘Some muggle music thing. Deep Vale, or something like that. Thats the next target. He’ll be there.’

 

‘Are you _sure_ of that?’ Sirius still had his fist raised and the wizard’s eyes were locked on it as he nodded.

 

‘That wasn’t so hard, was it?’ Sirius pulled the fist back and gave the final blow, knocking him unconscious.

 

‘Moony, you wipe them while I secure this one.’ 

 

Sirius’s words came out so easily, Remus felt compelled to oblige him. As he used a spell to wipe the memories of the frightened family and added an extra “stay out of the kitchen for a few hours” clause to it, he periodically looked back at the seemingly stable Sirius. He couldn’t work out why Sirius was so hell bent on finding this Jim person. But for the first time, he almost felt a bit uneasy around his long-time friend. 

 

‘We better let Dumbledore in on our discoveries.’ Sirius caught Remus off-guard and jumped at his words. He looked back into the kitchen after all the little girls were seated around the coffee table in the living room and the parents were safely in their armchairs. The three Death Eaters were neatly laid out for the ministry to find. Bound and unconscious, making it easy work for whatever ministry officials showed up.

 

‘Yeah, maybe you should write it up quickly? Before we forget anything?’ Remus attempted a smile to ease the tension as they disapparatus out of the muggle home and back into Sirius’s flat. 

 

‘I’m terrible at the reporting part, I’m the brawn, you be the brains.’ Sirius joked.

 

‘How are you so happy after just beating a man into a bloodied pulp?’ Remus asked, taking up a seat at Sirius’s dining table and pulling some old parchment toward him to write out the details. 

 

‘Because. Even if we only got a small lead on the missing witch, now I know where James-Blishwick-The-Second will be thanks to his ol’ school buddy, Eleos Carrow.’

 

Sirius’s smile was genuine. He grabbed a biscuit from the counter and ate it while Remus pieced together what he’d just heard. 

 

Blishwick, the man that killed Ali’s mother, was going to be terrorising muggles at some kind of musical gathering in the not too distant future. He swallowed, leaving that part out of the report. 


	76. Emotional rollercoaster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As HPFF didn't allow smut, I held off, but am thinking about going back and adding it in as I had fun with this chapter! Let me know if you'd like me to!

Lily had woken up almost an hour ago, but she was too content watching James’s sleep-heavy breaths to get up and leave his embrace. She roamed over his features with her eyes, the little scatter of dark spots under his chin was one of her favourite features. She pulled a hand up from under the covers and pressed a finger lightly to them. James didn’t stir.

 

When she brushed the finger down his neck, tracing little circles over the skin of his chest he continued to doze and Lily was so happy she felt bad. There was so much sadness in their world right now, but she was so incredibly content, she felt guilty. She was so in love with James. Now living in their own little house, with Mrs Potter just down the road, it would have been a perfect morning. Of course, it wasn’t a perfect morning. She had suffered a horrific loss. Just after their wedding, Lily discovered both her parents had lost their lives to malaria. A muggle disease passed by mosquitos which had seemed like a virus and took their lives within days of one another. It wasn’t until Petunia had received a call from the missionary base, letting her know, that either of them found out how bad their parents' sicknesses had gotten. 

 

It was the first Lily had heard from Petunia since her wedding when she had stopped by their new home to tell her. It was a huge shock to see her sister there, on the doorstep, looking like she would rather be anywhere else. Lily had been tidying the house, putting things here and there from both James’s bedroom and hers, now that they had a whole home to spread out all their possessions. 

 

She had a normal muggle picture in a frame of Petunia, Iris and herself that her mother had taken, in her hands when she answered the door. Thankfully she had placed it in the lounge room before sitting down with Petunia in the kitchen or she was sure she would have dropped it once she’d received the news. Since that day, four months had gone by. She had only been married a week or so longer than that, and she was angry with herself for the resentment she'd felt when her parents couldn’t attend the wedding due to their illness. Always putting their work first was something Lily resented about her parents, even though it meant that she and Petunia could get away with a lot more mischief than if their parents worked a nine to five. She cherished the time she got to spend with them, and always wanted more. She still wasn’t very happy with herself for being so self-centred, worrying about her wedding more than their well-being. Maybe she never would be? Only time would tell. 

 

She knew it took everything Petunia was capable of to come to her house that day to tell her the grave news. She and James didn’t have a number to call, so it was the only way her sister knew to get the message to her. She had been cold-tempered and hadn’t stayed long, but for some reason just the fact that she’d come at all comforted Lily, in a way. The only time she’d seen her since was when they went to take what they wanted of their parents' valuables, much of the furniture Petunia had told her to keep to fill up their ‘pathetically empty house’ as she had put it. Another comfort, Lily had taken that as. Deciphering her sister's cruel outbursts as caring was all the redhead had left of the Evans family. 

 

Lily had cried a lot. But James was an enormous comfort. As was Mrs Potter, which is why her living down the road had been so helpful. She was the last parent either of them had, and both she and James treasured her dearly. Times were getting darker, people were dying all around them, and yet as Lily dragged her fingers over her husband's skin, tracing the outlines of muscle and bone and everything else that made up the most important part of her whole world, she was happy. And the guilt that came along with her happiness was hard to bare. But it was getting easier, slowly.

 

To know she would never be able to hear her father call her Lily-pad again, or get into an argument about the way of the world and what was best for the environment with her headstrong mother again. It felt odd. Like she was reaching out to grab them. Using everything she could muster to reach, reach, _just reach_. But they were hovering out of her grasp. Watching her. It was a heavy feeling settled on her chest that she dealt with every day. But it wasn’t going away and she knew she had to keep going. And she knew she couldn’t be sad forever. 

 

It was strange though, just when she felt like she was starting to get a handle of her emotions, and was holding her tears back a little easier, suddenly she was crying at the drop of a hat again.

 

Last night she and James had an odd night off together and they spent it the way they usually did, locked away from their friends and family in a tangle of limbs and chaste moments. But after they had worn themselves out and Lily had gone into the kitchen, stark naked, she dropped a glass she grabbed from the cabinet intent on filling it with water and completely lost it over the broken shards of her parents' old cup. She cried and cried and cried, bending down to pick up the remains and cutting her hand. That only got her crying harder. Which is when James came running in and scooped her up off the floor, getting her to the couch before realising she was completely fine. 

 

Even after he’d repaired the cup and her cut she couldn’t stop the tears streaming down her face and she just stared at him, hollering, wondering what had come over her. That’s when James started laughing and grabbed a blanket from the bedroom, curling up with her on the couch as the sobs eased but the tears still continued to roll out in perfect formation. He had brushed his fingers through her hair for well over an hour which had lulled her into a light sleep. She didn’t even notice him carrying her to the bedroom until she had woken to see him there, hugged in tight beside her.

 

She wasn’t sure how she had gotten so lucky? James was perfect. Maybe not literally. But he was perfect to her. She could still remember hating him and his toe rag attitude in school. But he was so different now. So different, but somehow still exactly the same. She continued to trace little shapes over his bare chest. When James finally stirred, a muscle in his back twitching, Lily pulled her body into a propped up position and drew her face down on his, placing a kiss on his lips. As she pulled back she could see the smile on his face.

 

‘Good morning, Mrs Potter.’ James smiled, forcing his sleepy eyes open against their will.

 

‘Good morning, handsome.’ Lily grinned, ducking a hand under the covers and securing it around his morning glory. As she began to stroke it slowly, up and back down, James’s expression went slack again. 

 

A moan escaped from his mouth as he changed his position to get more comfortable beside her. His hands went straight for her breasts and as he grabbed them in a motion that was very normal to them, Lily groaned and stopped what they were doing.

 

‘What’s wrong?’ James asked, sitting up on the bed.

 

‘Not sure. They’re so tender.’ She frowned, touching her hands to her chest in wonder. It had been a while since she’d gotten her period, so perhaps it was that?

 

‘We don’t need them to have fun.’ James winked at her, flipping her suddenly so that he was positioned over her and bringing his lips down onto hers. His lips were so soft and she could smell every part of them, unwashed and sweaty from the previous night's actions carried forward until now. 

 

James’s lips didn’t stop their onslaught as his tongue roamed her mouth and his hand found its way in-between her legs. It didn’t take his fingers long to warm her up before she left forth a _please_ which sent James over the edge. She was ravenous for him. She could feel how hard he was against her thigh and when he positioned the head between her lips, rubbing it back and forth to get it wet enough, she was practically frantic for him to push inside of her. And when he did, she cried out from the excessive pleasure of just having him enter her so slowly. 

 

It didn’t take them long to finish, Lily was too worked up and once she got on top, she went at it so fast that James had to call out to her to slow down, which only made her speed up. James’s convulsing body grabbed a hold of her so tightly as he climaxed she managed to hit the right spot and fell, spent, on top of him, not wanting to move from the sensitivity their actions had just caused. 

 

James was kissing her face all over and Lily was smiling, wiping the beads of sweat away from her brow. But as the minutes passed and James finally pulled out of her, Lily was hit with a wave of emotion from the loss of his closeness. James caught her face just as she broke into tears.

 

‘Lily! Lily what is it, baby?’ He kissed her lips and cheek and forehead and lips again, ‘Don’t cry. What’s wrong?’

 

‘I don’t know!’ She accused him, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him on top of her, needing the weight of his body on hers.

 

‘Don’t leave me!’ She demanded through her tears.

 

‘I’m not going anyway, babe. I’m right here.’ He whispered, securing his arms around her and laying kisses on her ear and jaw. ‘I won’t leave you. Not ever.’ 

 

He kept whispering these types of things into her ear and kissing her any place he could reach without letting his embrace go too much for fear of Lily’s tears picking back up. They stayed like that for another ten minutes while her tears died down to a low rumble and her hands found their way down to his butt. 

 

‘I,’ Lily cupped his cheeks with both her hands, ‘I love your bum so much.’ She croaked out and started crying again, ‘what is wrong with me?’ She wailed.

 

James was trying so hard not to laugh, ‘It’s a good butt. You can cry about it. It’s fine.’ He kissed her again and eventually she managed to turn her tears into laughter, albeit still looking a little distraught. 

 

As the day went on, they received an owl from Frank Longbottom about something they had agreed to the week prior. 

 

_Dear James and Lily,_

 

_I hope we’re still on for tonight?_

_Is there anything you’d like us to bring?_

_Send word with Trevor._

 

_Best,_

_Frank Longbottom._

 

‘Oh, the dinner!’ Lily squealed remembering, ‘I need to get everything ready! How could I have forgotten!’ Lily’s lip began to quiver and James broke the silence as he saw her ready to break down again. He was clearly so used to this, since Lily had found out about her parents, that he was dealing with it so fluidly Lily didn’t seem to notice.

 

‘I remembered! It’s fine! Everything is taken care of, babe. Why don’t you… go get yourself ready? Didn’t you find a whole lot of your old clothing? Go try some on.’ James was giving her the warmest smile that Lily forgot all about the tears threatening to break through.

 

Just as she took James’s advice, Sirius strolled in the kitchen door without so much as a hello. Both of them had become rather accustomed to this, however, so neither of them so much as flinched.

 

‘Padfoot is going to help me skin the potatoes and everything.’ Something in the look James flicked at Sirius looped him in instantly to the atmosphere. 

 

‘Right you are Prongs. That’s actually why I’m here. Potatoes.’ He nodded and Lily seemed to take the bait. Once she had left the room James heaved a sigh of relief.

 

‘Thank Merlin you’re here.’ James clapped Sirius on the shoulder as Sirius grinned at his unplanned knack of showing up at the right time for once, and not while his two friends were joined at the pelvis. 

 

‘You’re in a grand mood, aren’t you.’ James added, seeing the glazed look on his best friends face.

 

‘Yeah. Finally got a lead on something I’ve been after for months. But Ali’s out on Order business and won't be home until late so I thought I’d stop by. Moony’s acting all high and mighty because I punched some death eaters or something.’ Sirius shrugged.

 

‘Really? Thought he’d be chuffed about that?’ James made his way over to the cupboards, grabbing things out for dinner.

 

‘Maybe I was a little hard on them, but you know how it is?’ Sirius was clearly fishing. But James would allow it, thanks to the save he had just provided.

 

‘Of course. Sometimes you just have to dish it out.’

 

‘Exactly!’ Sirius agreed.

 

‘No really. We’re dishing it out. Come on, you’re helping me with dinner.’

 

Sirius rolled his eyes but went along with what James was asking of him.

 

*

 

Sirius had stayed for the meal and once they had finished eating, James had averted another crisis by volunteering he and Frank to pop down to the store and grab something for dessert. As nothing had been planned and Lily had once again noted how terrible she had been to have forgotten. James had ordered Sirius to watch Lily and make sure she didn’t burst into tears over anything frivolous while poor Alice was unbeknownst to the situation of Lily’s emotions still being in peak form since her parents passing.

 

‘Alice, are you all right?’ Lily asked, watching as Alice raised a hand to her mouth, momentarily, halfway through the sentence she was speaking.

 

The slightly older woman raised a singular finger as she seemed to compose herself and swallowed.

 

‘Just… nauseous.’ Lily and Sirius watched her empathetically as she gathered herself for a second time. ‘It comes and goes.’

 

‘Are you ill?’ Sirius turned his nose up at her.

 

‘She’s pregnant, you bloody fool.’ Lily smacked him, ‘I mean she did announce it to us all last month. Honestly, Sirius.’ 

 

‘My sincerest apologies.’ Sirius blurted out, watching Lily as her anger subsided once his regrets were stated. He continued to eye her as she turned back to Alice.

 

‘How is the pregnancy, Alice? Is it treating you all right? How far along are you now?’ Lily’s mood snapped into one of wonder as Alice’s smile glowed on her face.

 

‘It’s wonderful.’ Suddenly Alice’s face turned sour, ‘Well, actually, it’s not. It’s awful.’ She frowned, ‘but then again, it’s so beautiful.’ 

 

Lily was nodding, somehow understanding Alice’s emotions. Sirius looked between them shook his head. 

 

‘Do you think it’s daft? Having a baby in a war? I know Frank and I weren’t planning it, but it's a little miracle.’ Alice touched the spot on her stomach the baby was sure to be growing. Although the lack of a huge stomach made Sirius frown. She looked more like she’d just had a big dinner.

 

‘No. Of course it isn’t. If we stopped living because of this war, then he would have already won. I think its brilliant!’ Lily exclaimed.

 

‘Thank you, Lily. You don’t know how much that means.’ Alice’s hands clapped up to her mouth as she got teary. 

 

‘I don’t want to make you cry!’ Lily stood up and rushed over to her. It wasn’t long before both women were crying, saying unintelligible things to one another which Sirius guessed were encouragements or compliments. He watched them go on like this for all of five minutes before he snapped.

 

‘What can I do to make this stop?’ 

 

‘Sirius!’

 

‘What? You two have actually lost the plot.’

 

‘I’m so sorry. I’m just so emotional. It’s the pregnancy. It’s making me crazy.’

 

‘Well, are you both pregnant?’ Sirius laughed.

 

A silence descended over all three of them. Lily’s eyes went wide. Alice’s mouth formed a small oh as she kept a hold of Lily’s hand. Sirius blinked as he watched Lily’s mounting fear.

 

‘Prongs you _dog_.’ Sirius barked out a laugh just as James and Frank came in through the front door and shook off some of the snow that had fallen on their coats.

 

‘We’re back! And we’ve brought _cake_!’ James sang, a smile wide on his face as he turned back around to see the strange gathering in the middle of the lounge room. 

 

‘That’s not all you’ve brought, apparently.’ Sirius quipped, his elevated mood continuing.

 

‘Lily? Lily how long has it… since?’ Alice asked, taking control of the woman going into shock before her.

 

Lily shook her head, ‘Uh. I’m not sure? I can’t even remember the last time... oh.’ Lily blinked, ‘just before the wedding actually.’ She covered her mouth.

 

‘Lily the wedding was nearly five months ago!’ Alice gaped, ‘you could be as far along as me!’

 

‘I could?’ 

 

‘What’s going on?’ James chimed in, looking between Sirius, Lily and Alice.

 

‘Is everything all right, sweetheart?’ Frank called over to Alice while taking off his shoes.

 

‘Everything’s just been so… with my parents…’ Lily looked up at Alice.

 

‘Oh, of course, it's understandable. But…’ she looked down at Lily’s stomach, ‘you’re not even showing.’ 

 

Lily looked down, too, ‘maybe I’m not?’

 

‘What is going on!?’ James piped in, kneeling down in the middle of the lounge room floor where Alice and Lily were now situated. 

 

‘That's how we got into this mess, Prongs. Get your mitts away from her.’ Sirius kicked him, knocking James onto his side and giving them both a chuckle before Lily interrupted.

 

‘James I haven’t had my period since the wedding. _Four and a half months ago_.’ Lily clearly didn’t find the situation nearly as funny as Sirius seemed to.

 

‘Oh?’ James seemed quizzical as Sirius helped him back onto his knees. Then it clicked, ‘you’re pregnant?’ James looked at Lily for an answer.

 

‘I… I think so? It would make sense of a few-’

 

‘I’m gonna be a Dad?!’ The volume of James’s voice reached a new level as he grabbed a hold of Lily’s arms.

 

‘Uh, maybe?’ She seemed taken aback.

 

‘Well, how do we find out!?’ James demanded looking at Frank and Alice for confirmation.

 

‘Well, there’s a spell…’ Frank answered rather oddly while he shuffled uncomfortably, ‘but it’s not something we should be doing out in the open.’

 

‘Why not?’ Sirius caught on to Frank’s tension.

 

‘It requires a... f-female touch.’ Frank was firm about that and looking at Alice as if his life depended on it. Alice laughed.

 

‘Come with me, Lily.’ 

 

‘I’m coming!’ James declared.

 

‘You most certainly are not.’ Alice shook her head and ushered Lily off towards the staircase leaving a very concerned James behind.

 

‘This isn’t funny.’ James landed a punch heavily on Sirius's shoulder from where he was chuckling on the couch. Over the next fifteen minutes, Frank took up a seat on one of the air chairs and James stayed on his feet while Sirius held onto the place he’d been abused. 

 

When Lily and Alice appeared again James rushed over to her and Lily was just as eager to get to him. 

 

‘Well?’

 

‘James, I’m so sorry. I had no idea. I am. Is… is it okay? I know we weren’t… there’s no plan? Oh lord.’ She whined as the tears started again. Alice had hustled around behind them and joined Frank on the armchair as they watched on. The display felt it could have gone into an area where they may need to leave… or crack open a bottle of firewhisky? They weren't sure.

 

‘I’m going to be a Dad!’ James roared and kissed Lily so fiercely she stumbled backwards afterwards.

 

‘Padfoot!’

 

‘Oh, I heard, mate.’ Sirius laughed as James swooped him into a hug.

 

‘Thank you!’ James bounced over to Alice and Frank and drew them in as well before darting back off to his wife. 

 

‘It’s going to be a boy!’ James cheered, ‘I have to tell Mum!’

 

‘James.’ Lily looked on at him, half shocked, half dazed.

 

‘What is it? Are you all right? Do you feel sick?’

 

‘No.’ Lily hesitated, ‘I’m… I’m a bit scared.’ Tears welled in her eyes again and James realised he was celebrating too early. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself.

 

‘I’m sorry, baby. I’m just… I’m an idiot. I’m sorry. Let's sit down.’ His voice lowered significantly as they made their way over to the couch and took seats together, with Sirius not far off, taking up the arm behind James.

 

‘We can get out of your hair Lily?’ Alice added.

 

‘Oh, no! Please, you need to tell me what is going on.’ Lily laughed through her tears.

 

‘Hey,’ Sirius spoke up over the madness, ‘lets hope he looks like Evans, because with a mop like Prongs, he’ll never get a date.’ Sirius laughed and Lily seemed to come to some kind of a conclusion. 

 

‘A little James?’ Her words were soft and she focused her eyes on the man before her, ‘A tiny, little you?' Her face broke into a smile, 'I guess I could handle that.’ And she leaned forward to hug her husband.

 

‘I mean, it could be a girl.’ Alice’s was the voice of reason, but no one other than Frank heard her. 

 

Lily pulled Sirius into the hug and when James requested telling his mother again, Lily agreed this time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was difficult killing off Lily's parents, and I've always found it a very odd piece of canon that Harry had NO grandparents when he was born? Like, yes, James's parents were older (still would have to be in their 50-60's to have even given birth to him?? He was only 21!) So maybe they bit the dust somehow, but Lily's parents? Dead, also? BOTH? And out of the four NONE died due to the war? It was natural causes? What on earth. But whatever. I will follow your lead, JK!
> 
> And I know the trope of James being super happy about Lily being pregnant is probably overdone... but it's because it would have been 100% canon. Fight me on that. James was ecstatic the SECOND he found out.


	77. Kreacher's choice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the chapter in which I say 'see-ya-later' to canon. 'Cause sorry, from this point onwards, the canon of this era, SUCKS. (Sorry JK but it's true.)

‘I still can’t believe two pregnant women and their idiot husbands we’re the undoing of his entire plot.’ Ali sipped her tea, sitting across from Lily and James in her kitchen.

 

James looked entirely too proud while Lily laughed in a way that signalled she agreed with Ali’s retort. James and Frank had been on a mission together and when their wives had joined to take over, they’d kicked up a fuss about them needing to take it easy. But the women wouldn’t hear of it. In the time the four were arguing, the scene they’d been observing outside the ministry of magic’s entrance had unfolded just as Dumbledore had predicted. When the Minister, Harold Minchum, had stood to address a crowd of onlookers about the state of the war, a swarm of dementors had descended on the open site. 

 

There were, of course, a horde of Aurors present, who fought the dementors away from the crowds. But it was the four Order members that managed to act quickly when the minister himself was targeted. The way James told it, they had practically fought Voldemort off himself. Lily’s recount brought the story back down to a reasonable level in which they had indeed come face-to-face with the dark wizard, but if it weren’t for the entire Aurors office, they would not have been so lucky.

 

Ali shivered, ‘Lily, I think Frank and James are right though, you and Alice need to lay off the missions.’ Ali’s line of vision fell to Lily’s now growing belly. 

 

‘Yeah,’ Lily rubbed a hand over the section just under her ribs, ‘I’m not against it.’ 

 

‘She’s tougher than she looks,’ James kissed Lily before standing and taking her empty teacup to the sink. 

 

‘Ali!’ 

 

‘What?!’ Ali jerked in her chair at her name being screamed behind her. Tucker trailed into the kitchen, closely followed by Charlie Weasley.

 

‘We need dragon hide gloves, two leather cloaks and helmets, preferably fire resistant ones.’ 

 

‘For _what_?’ Ali turned to watch as Tucker and Charlie stood side-by-side, arms folded, looking very matter-of-fact.

 

‘Can’t say.’ Charlie nodded.

 

‘It’s need-to-know.’ Tucker nodded, identically. 

 

Ali, Lily and James watched the tiny children looking as suspicious as a pair of seven-year-olds could. 

 

‘You’re not getting any of that.’ Ali just raised a brow at them where she was clutching the back of her chair to keep them in her view.

 

Tucker sighed, ‘where’s Sirius. That hunk of muscle would help.’ He threw his hands up in the air and strode from the room.

 

All eyes in the room settled on Charlie as he stared back, his arms crossed.

 

‘I expected more from you, Jim.’ Charlie shook his head and left the room.

 

There were a few moments of silence before James spoke, ‘I feel called out.’ He touched the point just over his heart.

 

‘Tucker’s having a bad effect on him.’ Ali made a face towards where the boys disappeared.

 

‘Why do they need so much fire-proof attire?’ Lily asked the more pressing question.

 

‘They’ve decided to become dragon catchers.’ Ali rolled her eyes, ‘Charlie’s just obsessed with it and Tucker’s getting bored with harassing Snowball, so he’s graduated from cats and needs something bigger to torment.’ 

 

‘Where is Sirius?’ Lily looked at Ali as she turned back to them.

 

‘He left this morning for an Order mission. Kissed me on the head and said “today would be the day” or something. He’s been a bit off lately.’ Ali frowned, ‘ever since I got that letter from Regulus for him…’

 

‘He’s not upset that his Dad’s dead,’ James concluded, referencing the letter they’d received almost two weeks ago from Regulus. It was addressed to Ali but inside it had read to simply tell Sirius that their father had passed away and not much else. 

 

Ali had shed tears simply for what it meant, another of their parents was gone. So many had died recently it was becoming overwhelming. But Sirius had shrugged it off and it came down to him comforting her. When she had questioned it, why someone had passed at such a young age, Sirius had said it didn’t matter and not to dwell on it. He seemed perfectly nonchalant about the entire experience. After a day or two, Ali had accepted that when someone had been abused their entire life by their father, it might have been normal for them to have paid no mind to their passing. But Sirius didn’t seem happy or sad about it. Not even curious. It was as if he never found out. 

 

They continued on as they had been. And Ali decided not to worry about him but wondered how Regulus was taking it. Then she began to worry about the younger Black brother and all that he was battling with. She’d realised it was hopeless sending him letters as the only one she had received back was the one for Sirius. Instead, recently, she’d sent one to the small elf, Kreacher. She realised it probably wasn’t the proper procedure to address a letter to an elf. But she had gone through with it regardless, just last week.

 

_Dear Kreacher,_

 

_I hope you’re well._

_I’m writing to ask for your assistance._

_Please, if your master needs help, please, please contact me._

_I’m here… for both of you._

_Please watch out for him. And call on me if he needs._

 

_Sincerely,_

_Aaliyah Adams._

 

She hadn’t heard anything back. But she was getting used to that. The only person that replied to her letters anymore was Peter. Who she heard from in writing more than in person. He was falling away from the group a bit and even more-so from the Order. Everyone speculated it was due to his timidness. He never was the strongest of the group so no one paid it much attention.

 

‘I still think it’s odd that he didn’t even ask how it happened.’ Ali commented, almost under her breath.

 

‘Doesn’t matter, does it.’ James shrugged.

 

‘Well no, but it does if it’s something that could potentially plague Sirius later. What if-’

 

Out of nowhere, a pop registered an arrival in the kitchen along with the clattering of the utensils on the bench and James’s chair knocking over from the force of him lurching up to get closer to Lily. 

 

‘Kreacher?’ Ali stared in awe as the little hook-nosed house elf struggled to stand from the position on the bench seeming as if he was in utter turmoil over his actions. Ali rushed to his aid, helping him to sit up and brushing the wooden spoons and whisks to the floor. ‘Kreacher? Are you all right? What’s happened?’ Panic entered her voice at the clear sign on terror the elf was sporting.

 

‘Kreacher?’ James repeated, having heard the name before but not being able to place it. He curiously edged closer with Lily secured behind him. 

 

‘Master… Regulus-’ Kreacher was shaking. He was doing his best to keep quiet and Ali expected it was due to orders.

 

‘Kreacher, if he’s in trouble… take me to him. Take me to Regulus right now!’ Ali clutched her hands around his ineffectual ones and Kreacher hesitated.

 

‘Hold up, Regulus? This is Sirius’s elf? Ali… w-what’s going on?’

 

‘Please, watch the boys,’ Ali shot at her two friends and whipped back to the conflicted and mortified elf, ‘Kreacher! Take me to him **now**!’

 

In the snap of the moment, Kreacher seemed to resign himself to his disloyalty out of sheer desperation. Ali felt herself being lurched forward and disapparated from the kitchen. She felt someone take a hold of her arm and when they reappeared the scene was as shocking as she’d ever seen.

 

Ali’s screams filled the darkened cavern, as they could see Regulus being torn at by corpses emerging from what they could barely make out, through the consuming black backdrop, as a lake. Ali launched forwards and felt someone beside her, keeping up with her desperate strides.

 

‘Regulus!’ She screamed, falling down to his hands and latching on, heaving him to the best of her ability. ‘Hold on! Hold me!!’ She could feel her heart rocketing out blood from the speed it was pumping. She didn’t have her wand. She hadn’t thought to bring it and all she could do was grasp at Regulus’s diminishing form as he was being swallowed by the encroaching hoard of what she now recognised from her texts as Inferi. She could feel herself shrieking in horror but the sounds of their deafening moans and screams drowned her voice out. 

 

Faintly she heard someone yelp, ‘ _fire_!’ closely followed by, ‘ _Incendio!’_ and then another ‘ _Incendio!’_

 

Over and over Ali heard them conjuring the fire spell and knew that both Lily and James had latched on to her when Kreacher had disapparated them. Her fingers were gouging into Regulus’s skin, she was trying so hard to keep him from entering the lake completely. He was barely gripping onto her and she feared that the Inferi had gotten the better of him, but she kept her fists tight, regardless. 

 

She could do nothing other than desperately pull at him, attempting to wrench his body closer into her own. And as the painful seconds fell away, she felt her grip on him strengthen. She gathered him up the best she could and started to use her legs to kick at the rotting flesh grasping at them both. And after a few more seconds she felt Kreacher’s tiny hand grasp the back of her jumper and she held on to Regulus as tight as she could manage. Suddenly they were falling and lurching once more and in an instant, they’d fallen back into the kitchen and she looked around to make sure James and Lily were with them.

 

Lily looked paler than usual and was ever so slightly shaking. James immediately wrapped his arms around her, after detaching from Kreacher, as Lily used her free arm to touch her belly. 

 

‘Master.’ Kreacher’s voice was low and so filled with trepidation. 

 

‘Regulus!’ Ali looked back at him in shock and jumped up to get around to his body. 

 

He wasn’t moving. There were gouge marks, gushing with blood all down his torso. Ali frantically clambered around and grabbed her wand where it had been left on the bench and started to seal the wounds with her trembling hands.

 

‘Stay awake! Just stay awake, Black!’

 

‘What’s happening?’ Ali barely heard Tucker asking but she heard Lily immediately rush off to prevent the young boys from entering the kitchen.

 

‘What do you need, Ali? What can I get?’ James was right behind her.

 

‘Master. Master Regulus.’ Kreacher crooned at his side, stroking his face. Regulus’s expression was limp and his skin was so pale he could have been transparent. 

 

‘Towels,’ Ali turned and yelped at James, ‘get the thickest towels you can find, we need to heat him up. I’ll dry his clothes and seal his wounds,’ she nodded to herself, needing the instructions. 

 

Kreacher had found a tea-towel and used it to prop up his masters head and Ali got to work using spells to continue sealing the wounds first, and when she could no longer see any open gashes, she used the hot-air charm over the top of his clothes to steam them to a drier state. When she looked back to where Kreacher was still nursing his head, she let go of the breath she was holding. Colour was beginning to return to his face.

 

‘Kreacher,’ the elf looked at her slowly, ‘what happened?’

 

‘He drank it. He drank all the awful black water. Just like Kreacher had to.’ He shook his head and saw Regulus stir.

 

‘What did the black water do?’ They both watched as Regulus started to mumble and twitch.

 

‘Makes you mad.’ Kreacher continued his soothing hand motions, ‘So thirsty. And scared.’

 

Ali frowned. She’d never heard of a potion that would make the drinker both terrified and thirsty. It wasn’t something she’d personally read about, or encountered. But she knew a spell that reversed minor ailments, poisoning included.

 

‘ _Reparifors_.’ Ali held her wand over his heart and the purplish-white light leaked from her wand-tip and engulfed his chest and washed over his face. 

 

‘Here.’ James arrived with the towels. He knelt down beside her but Ali was frozen. James started unfolding the towels and layering them over Regulus still form. One after the other, over and over. Kreacher continued to whisper into his ear and stroke the hair from his forehead. 

 

Ali couldn’t move. She had done all that she could if he didn’t make it from here, she wasn’t sure there would be time to get him to St. Mungo’s.

 

‘It’s okay, honey, come here.’ She heard Lily in the room over and Tucker starting to cry. 

 

It wasn’t until Regulus began to shiver that Ali grabbed his hand, taking the perception of the cold as a sign of life. 

 

‘Are you all right?! Is Lily?’ Ali whipped around, not letting go of Regulus’s hand. 

 

‘I-I think so.’ James look positively stunned.

 

‘I’m okay!’ Lily called out, ‘Is he? Ali, d-did he?’

 

‘Bring the boys in, Lily. I think he’s going to make it.’ Ali needed to see Tucker, his wailing was getting louder.

 

‘Aaliiiiyaaaahhhhhh!’ Tucker heaved out as he rushed over to her and fell down to hug her. She grabbed a hold of him, running her fingers over his curls before she kissed his head.

 

‘It’s okay, Tuck. Sirius’s brother was in trouble, but we saved him. He’s… he’s going to be all right.’ She wasn’t entirely sure of her words, but they both turned back to look at him where Kreacher was still loyally stationed, and Regulus’s eyes began to open. 

 

‘Reg!’ Ali placed Tucker to her side, one arm still around him, but used the other to touch Regulus’s forehead.

 

‘Adams?’ His eyes struggled, opening then closing again. 

 

‘Blood.’ They heard from behind them. Charlie was holding onto Lily, looking at the blood leaking out from under the towels and onto the kitchen tiles. 

 

‘Good god, please don’t tell your mother about this.’ Lily covered his eyes and knelt down to pull him into her arms. 

 

‘Hold on, I’ve got this.’ James sat forward from where he was situated, closer to Regulus’s legs. He pulled the towels away and used, ‘ _Tergeo_ ’ to syphon the blood off Regulus and onto the tiles. He then used the scouring charm to rid the tiles of the gory sight and once again covered his best friends brother in the warmth of the thick linen. 

 

‘You can’t scourgify it from my eyes though.’ Charlie just stared wide-eyed from where Lily was holding onto him and James broke a little and chuckled. 

 

Ali smiled, planted another kiss on Tucker’s head and ushered him to join Lily now that he’d calmed down. She sat forward and pushed the towels back again to make sure none of the gashes were reopening. They were very deep and she decided a few extra layers of the mending charm wouldn’t hurt. She went over the reddest of them then joined Kreacher in brushing her hand over his drying hair. 

 

Kreacher looked up at her and while he didn’t say the words, his eyes held a lot more gratitude than she’d ever seen on his usually sombre features. She just smiled at him before noticing that Regulus’s eyes were open.

 

‘Krea-cher?’

 

‘Yes, Master?’

 

‘Where is it?’ His breathing was laboured, but he seemed to be making a recovery none-the-less.

 

‘Right here, Master. I did as you told me. I replaced it with the fake.’

 

‘You disobeyed- me.’ 

 

‘To save you, Master. I will endure any punishment you see fit. I’m sorry, Master. I’m sorry.’ He inched himself backwards to bow in the guilt of his disobedience.

 

‘Hush.’ Regulus’s eyes closed again. ‘Thank you- Kreacher.’ Regulus feebly pulled a hand up to him and Kreacher took it with both his tiny fists.

 

‘We need to get him to St. Mungo’s to make sure he’ll be okay.’ Ali made to stand up.

 

‘No!’ Regulus tried to sit up but was immediately subdued by Ali.

 

‘Why not?’

 

‘I can’t, he’ll find me, he’ll find out!’ Regulus’s distress mounted.

 

‘All right! Calm down!’ Ali pulled her wand back up ready to subdue him magically, ‘we’ll get you into a bed then, or perhaps a warm bath first.’

 

‘Regulus, what _was_ that _place_?’ James blurted out, unable to hold back.

 

A snippet of the screaming and the fire and darkness flashed back to her and Aaliyah realised she was still shaking. 

 

‘No!’ Ali sounded resolutely, ‘we can discuss that later. For now, I want to make sure Regulus isn’t poisoned or infected by the inf- er, those, things. I need to get him into a bath. Lily, can you help me with that?’

 

‘Of course,’

 

‘James, can you take the boys over to Molly’s, let her know we have a sick relative and ask if she could keep Tucker until I come to collect him. Then, please find Sirius.’

 

‘Sirius.’ Regulus repeated softly, falling out of consciousness. 

 

‘Kreacher, we’ll keep him safe. You best get back to your Mistress before she finds you’re missing.’ 

 

‘Master…’ Kreacher looked torn. By the look he gave Ali, he knew she was right, but he clearly didn’t want to abandon his sick master. 

 

‘I promise you Kreacher, you can keep popping in. He’s safe here. You have my word.’

 

Kreacher hesitated, but then gave a small nod. He stood from his Master's side and gathered what looked like an item of jewellery up from the floor and with a ‘pop’ he was gone.

 

While James grabbed the boys, Lily and Ali got to work with Regulus and carefully levitated him up the stairs to the bathroom. 

 

*

 

‘Merlin, Molly!’ James’s eyes zoned in on the enormous pregnant stomach of the little-redheaded woman as she opened the door for them and Charlie and Tucker rushed inside to get out of the cold.

 

‘Oh, hullo James!’ Molly smiled, grabbing a hold of Charlie to stop him running off, ‘Tucker, darling.’ She rubbed his curly mop.

 

‘Molly! I didn’t know you were expecting?’ James was so affronted.

 

‘Well, of course, I am, James. She’s due this month.’

 

‘She?’

 

‘This one is definitely a girl. I can feel it.’

 

James mentally counted, ‘five boys so far. Well, whatever the little tyke is, we’ll have to have play dates. Lily and I are expecting ours around July or August.’

 

‘Oh thank goodness,’ Molly sighed, ‘It’s so much better when they have someone their age to play with. Bless you, Tucker, and thank god the twins have each other.’ She looked beyond exhausted.

 

‘You’re not going to have her… now…ish… are you?’

 

Molly giggled, ‘No. I don’t think so.’

 

‘All right… well, I won’t take up too much of your time, Molls. Ali’s had a family emergency and her father’s still at work. She wondered if you’d mind Tucker staying here to play with the boys while we help her sick relative?’

 

‘Oh, my! Of course, come here you poor thing.’ Molly hugged Tucker to her side, ‘do you need anything? Help or a hand in the kitchen?’

 

‘No, that’s all fine Molly, there’s no need to fuss.’ James smiled despite having a sinking feeling in his stomach about the scene they had all encountered today.

 

‘But if it’s a sick relative, surely some food?’

 

‘No way, you need to go and rest. Ali said she’d be by to collect Tucker once everything had settled down a touch.’

 

‘And they’ve mopped up all the blood.’ Charlie looked up at James, nodding.

 

‘Blood?’ Molly looked down at her son.

 

James laughed boisterously, ‘Oh Charlie, you’re imagination!’ While Molly was distracted massaging a spot on her stomach, he gave both the boys a wild expression and pointed an accusatory finger. Tucker laughed and Charlie raised his hands in defeat. 

 

‘Boys, head inside, Bill's in the lounge room. They’ll be fine here, James.’

 

‘Thank you!’ He gave Molly a little nod of appreciation as he left the shabby little doorstep and Molly closed the door.

 

James rubbed his arms up and down to counter the cold, but he didn’t have far to go to get in touch with Sirius. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the two-way mirror.

 

‘Padfoot. Padfoot, you there mate?’ James shivered a little as he walked back towards the Adams house. The Weasley’s lived on the outskirts of the little suburb and in the coldest possible part of Devon. 

 

‘Prongs, old man, how are we?’ Sirius’s voice rang out, ’I’m a little busy at the moment-’

 

‘It’s going to have to wait. Ali needs you.’

 

‘What? Why?’

 

‘It’s your brother.’ James lamented, fast approaching the Adams front door with his quick strides trying to warm himself up.

 

‘My brother? I can’t leave… I’m out here on an Order mission, this festival, it’s going to be attacked.’

 

‘Are there other’s there?’

 

‘Well, yeah. Got Longbottom and the Prewett’s with me, as well as Moody, Diggle, Bones, Doge and Vance.’

 

‘That’s enough then Padfoot, you’ll have to ditch.’

 

‘But I can’t… this, I’ve been waiting-’

 

‘He almost died Sirius,’ James stood at the front door wanting to finish before he went back inside. He watched Sirius’s fervent expression fade to shock. He banged the thick February snow off his boots and turned the handle, ‘Ali needs you.’

 

Sirius looked hesitant in the little mirror, ‘All right… I’ll… I’ll be there soon.’

 

‘Okay, mate. See you.’


	78. The newest Marauder

‘This is all happening very quickly,’ Sirius was taking deep breaths in and out as he clutched the back of the lounge, ‘I don’t know if I’m ready for this?’

 

James stifled a laugh close to Lily while Remus shook his head beside Mary at the entrance of the kitchen.

 

‘What the bloody hell do _you_ need to be ready for?’ Lily seethed throwing a look at James for indulging their friend’s ridiculous behaviour.

 

‘Well, it’s a very different situation when it’s inside of you. What if one of us drops it?!’ Sirius threw back and this time James couldn’t hold himself back from the resulting chuckle. 

 

‘You’re definitely not holding him first, mate.’ James shook his head but Sirius had gotten the desired effect. James has been so tense before, the room felt palpable. He relaxed a little with Sirius’s playful taunts. 

 

Until Lily doubled forward over the armchair closest to their fireplace, teeth clamped together to suppress her yelp of pain. James tensed up straight away and flocked to her side to stroke her back as the contraction continued. Everyone in the room watched on helplessly.

 

‘Breathe, baby, remember to breathe.’ James spoke softly but regardless of his light tone, Lily snapped. 

 

‘I am fucking breathing! I’d be dead if I wasn’t breathing!’ Lily’s glare could have shot any of them down dead, but James received the words with a nod and smile in return.

 

‘Just remember what the healer told us to do.’ He tried again, continuing his rhythmic massaging as Lily leant forward. She was trying desperately to find a comfortable way to manage the intense cramps as they came in waves.

 

‘You’re not doing anything.’ Lily retorted and it was Mary that caught herself mid-chuckle this time, ‘where is Peter? And Ali?’ Lily’s anger faded and she looked momentarily bleak as James covered her back with his chest and hugged her the best he could from behind.

 

‘On their way over by now, I’m sure.’ Remus offered, hoping it was an okay moment to speak.

 

‘They won’t be long,’ Mary complimented as they both shifted awkwardly, still standing side by side. Remus and Mary looked like they were very unsure about their current situation. Lily seemed to be in so much pain and neither of them enjoyed not being able to help.

 

‘She’ll drag that hermit over here, have faith her ability to boss people around.’ Sirius gave Lily a thumbs up.

 

Before Lily could reply, Mrs Potter burst through the little red front door into the Potter’s cottage, ‘I have them! I got the oils!’

 

‘Mum, where have you _been_?’ James looked as if a weight had been lifted as he ushered his mother over to where he was still massaging Lily’s lower back. 

 

‘I couldn’t get them at the first two places I went to, I’m sorry, dears.’ She crossed the distance, gripping Sirius momentarily in passing as he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, ‘Lily, darling, how are you feeling?’ Mrs Potter was pulling multiple vials of coloured liquids out of a deep, brown woven bag as she gushed over to her son and daughter-in-law. 

 

‘Well,’ Lily started, but she wasn’t able to continue as another contraction struck and she shrieked, grabbing a hold of James’s hand from where he had it rested next to hers on the back of the armchair. James looked as if he wanted to join her in her vocal activities from the force of her death-grip but resisted while they rode out the most recent wave. It was a tense three minutes as James and Lily’s faces were mirrors of pain. Mrs Potter and Sirius drew in closer while Remus and Mary teetered a few metres away. Once Lily took a deep breath and looked as if she were ready to cry, everyone visibly relaxed.

 

‘How far apart was that one from the last?’ James’s panic heightened once more.

 

‘Still about seven minutes, I think,’ Remus said.

 

‘No, no that was five minutes. I was counting.’ Sirius corrected.

 

‘Five minutes?!’ James grabbed Lily’s shoulders. She was breathing heavily, ‘Didn’t the healer say that’s it? That’s the time?’

 

‘Lily, how are you feeling?’ Mrs Potter asked.

 

‘I think he needs to come out now.’ Lily nodded, trying desperately to take long, deep breaths, but failing, ‘I need to lay down.’

 

‘James! Get her to the bed upstairs!’ His mother ordered and tapped her wand to a small, silver artefact sitting on the coffee table.

 

The next few moments were a rush of madness. Remus and Mary tried to help James with Lily, getting her safely up the stairs. Sirius darted over to the front door when Ali and Peter entered. Mrs Potter, who had summoned the birthing healer by touching her wand to the little silver object, was now using her wand to heat up the essential oils she had bought to calm Lily through the birth. Once Lily and James were out of sight up the stairs, the Healer apparated into the living room, making Mrs Potter and Peter jump. 

 

‘She’s ready?’ The young, brunette witch asked and Mrs Potter grabbed her with such force, yanking her along that Sirius startled Peter with his laughter.

 

‘What do we do now?’ Remus asked as he, Mary, Peter, Ali and Sirius all stood at the foot of the staircase, listening to Lily screaming at James. 

 

‘We wait.’ Ali answered as Sirius wrapped his arms around her and laid small kisses on her shoulder. She looked calm and happy for the affection. 

 

Peter looked out of place. He was shuffling from foot to foot and scratching the back of his arm in a skittish manner. When Lily’s screams could be heard all throughout the house, Remus curled an arm around Mary, pulling her into a sidelong hug to abate her alarm and panic. The smell of the lavender oils Mrs Potter was burning upstairs drifted down and everyone got a hazy look on their faces.

 

‘I can’t believe her sister. Not even wanting to be here for her nephew’s birth.’ Ali grumbled.

 

‘You meddle too much these days,’ Sirius shook his head while he played with her hand, tracing little lines up and down the backs of her fingers.

 

‘Potter and I both sent that letter, thank you very much.’ Ali quipped.

 

‘You’re as bad as each other.’

 

‘My meddling saved your brother’s life.’ 

 

There were a few seconds where Ali watched Sirius’s face from where they were now taking up space on one of the couches together. Sirius went unreadable, even though he was still engaging in the soothing strokes of his fingers against her hand. He said nothing more on the matter but lent forward and kissed her on the lips.

 

‘What happened to Sirius’s brother?’ Peter whispered to Remus. Remus had taken up one of the armchairs, Mary was in the other, and Peter chose to sit on the floor beside him.

 

‘Probably a better story for another time.’ Remus smiled down at him before they heard another aggravated yell from Lily upstairs. 

 

Over the next two hours, Remus and Mary decided to try and dabble in making some kind of food for everyone. They chatted in the kitchen, using their wands and whatever food they could find. There were a lot of chuckles and chastisement on Mary’s part. It didn’t sound like Remus was overly confident in making food. 

 

Sirius and Ali were sharing space in such an equanimous way it seemed as if neither one knew they were doing it. They were always touching. Either Sirius was finding ways to run his fingers over varying parts of her extremities or Ali was holding onto him with careful force. They added comments to Mary and Remus’s conversations or exchanged small talk with Peter. 

 

Ali spoke to Peter more than any of the others. And while the couple didn’t notice their affectionate displays, Peter seemed to. His watery eyes trailed along with any contact Sirius’s hands made with Ali’s skin. Or he pulled a discontented face when Ali latched onto any part of Sirius. 

 

‘That doesn’t sound like fun,’ Ali mentioned after a particularly loud cry from Lily upstairs. 

 

‘I did tell them to be more careful,’ Sirius smirked and kissed Ali’s neck.

 

‘They never stop, it was bound to happen.’ Remus added as he and Mary finally remerged and placed sandwiches, biscuits and a shepherds pie down on the coffee table. 

 

‘Is this for everyone?’

 

‘Yes, Peter.’ Mary smiled at him as he sniffed the freshly baked pie and took a plate. 

 

‘Yeah, tuck in, Wormtail.’ Sirius gave him a distant look as Peter did just that. Peter hesitated after hearing Sirius’s tone and looked back at him on the couch.

 

Ali smacked Sirius’s hand as his thumb rubbed her arm, ‘don’t be a git. Dig in, Peter. Don’t listen to him.’ 

 

‘I am _not_ a git.’ Sirius stirred, straightening himself up and towering over her. Remus and Mary started eating while Peter paused to watch the pair argue.

 

‘Yes, you are.’ Ali baited, a smirk growing on her lips. Sirius just shook his head at her, lowering himself down to kiss her, stifling her laughter. While Remus and Mary seemed to find the display to be sweet, smiling on as Sirius trapped Ali and her laughter mixed in with the moaning coming from up the stairs. Peter didn’t look as impressed. He seemed to lose his appetite and watched on with a cool expression, settling back into his position on the floor. 

 

‘Sirius, stop it!’ Ali insisted, trying to free herself. But just as she won the upper hand in the tussle, they heard a new noise and everyone in the living room froze. The high-pitched, light cry was so strange to all of their ears, no one was sure what to say.

 

‘He’s here!’ They heard James scream and within moments, Sirius had climbed out of the tangle with Ali and was on his feet at the bottom of the staircase, ‘Sirius!’

 

‘I’m here!’ Sirius called up.

 

‘Get up here!’ Before James had even finished Sirius was already on his way up, ‘all of you!’ They heard the following comment and Mary and Remus made their way to the staircase in an air of excitement. 

 

‘Are you coming?’ Ali was up, standing beside where Peter was still seated on the floor. 

 

‘Oh… I don’t-’

 

‘Come on,’ she cut him off, offering her hand, ‘let’s go meet the newest marauder.’

 

Peter paused for a moment, just looking up at Ali’s calm smile. It seemed to be infectious. He took her hand and the two of them headed up the stairs and down the hall to the room at the end. When they came through the opening, the first thing that caught their attention was Lily. She was looking more vibrant than they expected. She had a small bundle of blankets in her arms that both James and Sirius were leaning over her to see. 

 

James’s face was exuberant. James Potter was a naturally happy person, with the privileged life he led, it was hard not to be. But at that moment, he had never looked happier. His glasses were a little askew on his face, but he didn’t seem to care. His cheeks were rosy and full due to the intense smile plastered on his face. 

 

Ali looked over and saw Mrs Potter chatting to the birthing healer. They were deep in conversation about something she overheard as a check-up schedule that the younger woman would be back to do. Mrs Potter was nodding away, taking notes. 

 

Peter shifted closer to her and Ali didn’t shy away from him like she once would have. She realised he must have felt out of place. On their way over, he told her that he’d been feeling very distant from the group. That the quips James and Sirius made were getting to him a little more than they used to. That he wasn’t sure they really wanted him around. 

 

‘Wormtail, Adams. You have to come see him!’ James whispered, hovering over the top of the bundle of blankets. 

 

‘See.’ Ali muttered, nudging Peter forward. They both took careful steps towards the bed, Mary and Remus stepping aside a little to give them a better look. 

 

‘It actually was a him?’ Peter hesitated, only moving closer when he felt Ali close by his side. 

 

‘Wormtail, meet Prongs Junior.’ Sirius was as close to Lily as James but smirking at Lily rather than staring at the baby.

 

‘Shut up, Black.’ Lily retaliated, albeit sluggishly. Sirius just smiled and brushed some of the sweat entangled hair out of her face. 

 

‘Harry.’ James said suddenly, just as Peter and Ali got a clear look at the tiny human before them. ‘His name’s Harry.’

 

‘Oh, James.’ Mrs Potter said at the end of the bed, joining Remus and Mary, ‘your father would have loved that.’ She held a hand up to her mouth as tears welled in her ageing eyes. 

 

‘Why?’ Mary inquired.

 

‘It was my granddad’s name. Dad loved him so much, he told me so many stories about him.’ James elaborated.

 

Ali, who was fairly well versed in small children thanks to Tucker, smiled instantly the moment she saw the black haired baby. Rather than joining Sirius, she stayed on the side with James and Peter and leant in, just watching as the small, inert face lay sleeping. 

 

‘Harry.’ Peter parroted. He leant over the bed a little, taking the baby in. 

 

‘It’s perfect.’ Lily said, using her finger to push the blankets back. Everyone hustled in at that and the reasonably sized bedroom felt suddenly larger. Mrs Potter gathered herself and took a seat on the bed by Sirius, with Remus following close behind her.

 

‘Hello, little man.’ Sirius whispered, looking down at him. 

 

Lily looked up at James, ‘he’s so perfect.’ 

 

‘Yeah.’ James seemed a little lost for words, looking down at his son.

 

At that moment Harry’s little hand repositioned itself and grabbed a hold of the blankets. Almost instantly, every occupant of the room audibly gushed. Nearly twenty minutes passed before any of the residing adults moved or said much more than the odd ‘he’s so cute’.

 

‘He looks exactly like you, James.’ Ali noted when James settled himself next to Lily, kissing her on the cheek.

 

‘He really does,’ Lily agreed, ‘would you like to hold him?’ 

 

James looked momentarily fearful, ‘won’t that wake him?’

 

‘Newborn’s sleep patterns are all over the place, James. Don’t worry about waking him. He’ll either go right back to sleep or won’t be up for long.’ Mrs Potter said still watching the sleeping Harry, ‘and if you don’t take him, I will.’ 

 

James rearranged himself so he was sitting up straight beside Lily and held out his arms in wait, ‘hand him over to Daddy.’ Sirius snorted at James’s use of words.

 

Everyone watched on with baited breath as James and Lily tried their best to swap their newborn from mother to father. A little ‘mind his head’ from Mrs Potter was all they needed and they succeeded with little effort. Lily visibly relaxed once Harry was safely in James' arms. James just stared down at Harry with unmeasurable elation. 

 

The slight jostle woke Harry and his half-open eyes settled on James.

 

‘Hey little man,’ James couldn’t stop smiling, ‘I’m your Dad.’ 

 

Harry watched James. He blinked but continued to fix his gaze solely on James. James reached up to use his finger up to move Harry’s hand from where it was rested next to his chin. But Harry’s little fingers latched onto James and that’s where the new father froze. Lily made a little gasp at the action.

 

‘You can hold onto that forever if you need to little guy.’ James said as tears of happiness ran out from behind his glasses. Lily rested her head on his shoulder and they both watched as Harry shut his eyes once more. 

 

Everyone else in the room had settled into comfortable spots on the bed. Sirius made his way around to join Ali and Peter had shuffled down a little to sit by Mary. Remus looked as smitten as Mrs Potter from where they sat, side-by-side. But no one looked happier than the new parents. 

 

As an hour or so went by, James refused to let anyone else hold Harry. He couldn’t let him go. When Lily let forth a yawn and the birthing healer returned to help them with the first feed, Mary was the one to mention that maybe they should leave the new family to rest. 

 

Mary and Peter were waiting by the door while Remus seemed hesitant. He ultimately decided to join them, while Ali had to tug at Sirius to get him away from Harry and James. 

 

‘You did a bang up job, Evans.’ Were Sirius’s departing words, ‘I’m proud of you.’ 

 

‘Thank you, Padfoot.’ Her smile was soft but deliberate. She looked totally spent. 

 

James was unreachable. He was utterly consumed with staring at Harry. Mrs Potter stayed with them, as the birth healer tended to Lily and the five others headed out of the bedroom, down the hall and stopped at the door just before the staircase. 

 

‘Doesn’t it look bonnie.’ Mary stepped inside the freshly decorated baby’s room. Most of the contents were courtesy of Mrs Potter. The walls were painted a light yellow. There was a white bassinet in the corner near the window. A wooden rocking chair sat beside the bassinet, in front of the window, catching the dwindling summer sun. There were sweet decorations here and there that weren’t gender specific. Clearly, Mrs Potter wasn’t as sure as James that Harry was going to be a boy. 

 

‘Could do with a little mess. Seems a bit sterile, doesn’t it.’ Sirius noted.

 

‘Not everyone is happy living in their own filth, Padfoot.’ 

 

‘Okay, Mr Pettigrew.’ Sirius rolled his eyes. He received a sharp look from Ali after that which forced him to straighten up from where he was leaning against the door frame. 

 

Mary walked around the room, inspecting the contents. She reached a finger out and touched the floating mobile above the bassinet. Little moving figurines of stags and does pranced in a circle above the baby’s cot.

 

‘Deer? That’s an odd choice.’ 

 

‘I think it was deliberate.’ Remus smiled at Sirius and they shared a small chuckle. 

 

‘Would you like to go and grab a tea or something?’ Peter asked Ali away from the others once they’d left Harry’s room and were filing down the stairs.

 

‘Great idea, Peter.’ Ali smiled at him, ‘does everyone want to go and grab a tea together?’

 

Peter didn’t seem as enthused about everyone going, but he did his best to hide it once everyone had agreed. Making quick work of cleaning up the food they'd made prior, they all filed out of the house together. They knew a place close by and it didn’t take them long to get to the little inn next to the apothecary store just outside Godric’s Hollow. It was a muggle store and lacking in any kind of fine decor. The place would be best described as insanely British and noticeably cheap. But they enjoyed it due to the sour old lady that owned the tea room and the inn. 

 

‘Afternoon, Patty.’ Sirius smiled at the greying, older woman behind the counter.She grunted a response and Sirius hummed a happy note, ‘such a warm welcome.’

 

‘Don’t you think he looked like James?’ Remus brought the subject back to Harry.

 

‘Yep. Poor kid. Exact same hair, no doubt.’ Sirius joked.

 

‘At least he wasn’t ginger.’ Peter added.

 

‘What’s wrong with being ginger?’ Mary asked.

 

‘Would be a bit unfortunate for a guy. Wouldn’t it?’ Peter continued.

 

‘That’s a bit rich coming from you.’ 

 

‘Sirius, enough.’ Ali snapped. She left the table to place their order and Sirius looked back at Peter.

 

‘Good one, Wormtail.’

 

‘What did I do?’

 

‘Can we not do this today?’ Remus sighed.

 

‘He was a cute baby.’ Mary added.

 

‘He looked a bit squished.’ Peter said.

 

‘I mean he did just get squeezed out of a tiny hole…’ Sirius rolled his eyes. 

 

Peter huffed, ‘I can’t say anything right today, can I Padfoot?’

 

‘Among many other days,’ Sirius laughed, ‘I’m kidding Wormtail. We’ve missed you. Where have you been lately?’

 

‘Oh,’ Peter seemed like he wasn’t expecting the question, ‘I’ve been… around.’

 

‘Too scared to partake in the Order stuff anymore, though.’ Sirius said as Ali sat back down.

 

‘It’s my Mum… she hates the idea of me out there, in dangerous situations.’

 

‘Sure.’ Sirius’s response seemed neither sarcastic nor inflammatory. It was as if he lost interest once Ali returned. Peter watched as Sirius smiled at Ali and the movement he made, although covered under the table, appeared to be him taking her hand.

 

Peter twitched, ‘what happened to your brother then? Wasn’t he part of you-know-who’s lot?’

 

The question piqued Sirius’s interest enough that he turned back to Peter, one eyebrow only slightly raised. He surveyed him only a moment longer than normal before he answered over the top of the conversation Ali and Mary were currently having.

 

‘Uh, just a stupid mishap. Nothing major. That idiot brother of mine’s always getting himself into some kind of trouble.’ Sirius’s response was calm, ‘But family’s family.’

 

Peter didn’t enjoy the elongated stare he received from Sirius after that. Turning to Remus, who was paying more attention to the girls, he asked him how he was going with getting a job. Remus’s dejected looked supplied enough and they switched the conversation to something less morbid. 

 

Sirius continued to watch Peter for the rest of the time they spent at the tea room. Once Mary bid her goodbyes after their second cups were finished, they all made their way by the many empty tables topped with deep red tablecloths and out of the pink-walled, chandelier-lit room and back out into the fresh, un-musky air.

 

Remus managed to catch Sirius up in a conversation about Harry and the two friends seemed too enraptured by the conversation about the tiny baby to notice Peter and his advancement towards Ali.

 

‘Thank’s for coming to get me today. I’m glad I didn’t miss it.’ 

 

‘Of course, Peter. It wouldn’t be the same without you there.’ Ali’s smile was bright and the expression reached all the way up to her bright green eyes.

 

‘I feel like I haven’t seen anyone in months.’ Peter contemplated as they all walked back to a safe place to apparate.

 

‘You haven’t, I only hear from you in letters.’ Ali continued as Sirius and Remus laughed together ahead of them, ‘it’s a shame. I’ve missed you.’

 

‘You have?’

 

‘Of course I have. You were always kind to me. Even before Sirius and I got together. I wouldn’t forget something like that.’ Ali’s words caused a light blush to tickle Peter’s chubby cheeks.

 

‘Maybe we could catch up… just the two of us?’ Peter hesitated as they rejoined the other two and he feared Ali’s response.

 

‘I’d like that.’ She smiled at him and Peter’s face instantly lifted.

 

‘What would you like?’ Sirius asked, sweeping his arms around the shorter girl.

 

‘None of your business.’ Ali tried to push him away in an attempt that seemed less than eager. Sirius grinned and kissed her on the cheek. The four of them exchanged fleeting goodbyes before they all apparated to their respective homes, except Ali who went along with Sirius.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry the POV is all over the place. I just wanted to capture as many of the characters reactions to this day as possible. HARRY'S HERE!


	79. Herpo the Foul

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NSFW Chapter, very adult content ahead.

Everyone standing around the bare, dank kitchen had their attention directed down at the artefacts before them. On the empty, crumb-littered kitchen table sat a gold ring with a black stone inlaid at the top. It was alongside a manky looking locket with a serpent-shaped in an S on the front. 

 

James was rocking the tiny, month-old Harry in his arms absently with Lily beside him near an odd looking kitchen sink. Instead of a tap and handles it had one singular brass statue of a very angry looking goblin that appeared to be following people with its little brass eyes. 

 

Christian wasn’t far from James, having just handed Harry back to him moments before. The older, blonde man had a calculating look in his eye. He was the only one not staring at the hoard before them, but was instead transfixed on Dumbledore who he had arrived with half an hour ago.

 

Ali was sandwiched between Regulus and Sirius, deep in thought about what Dumbledore had just explained to the room, while the brothers seemed to be keeping oddly close to her sides. Remus was standing further back near a heavily padlocked backdoor with the Prewett’s, Dedalus Diggle and Benji Fenwick. 

 

‘So…’ Fabian spoke, breaking the silence, ‘what do you suppose they are then?’

 

‘We already know what they are.’ Regulus answered, barely above a whisper.

 

‘We do not.’ Diggle removed his purple top hat, ‘They can’t actually be.’

 

‘I assure you, Dedalus, after Mister Black came to me with his information I have made every attempt to verify his facts.’Dumbledore uncharacteristically raised a light hand to his temple and massaged it, ‘From what I have gathered, while concerning, it is indeed all true.’ His usually calm face was revealing mars of concern. 

 

‘W-what does it mean?’ Asked Benji, ‘for us?’ 

 

‘Well it means there’s no bloody chance for us, doesn’t it!’ Gideon bellowed and shook his head, ‘he’s immortal.’

 

‘There’s a chance,’ most of the occupants of the room jumped as the front door swung open and a new member joined their selective group, ‘there _is_ a chance.’ Alastor Moody moved into the room from the open doorway, but not before checking the perimeter behind him and locking the door with a silent enchantment.

 

‘Welcome back, Alastor.’ 

 

‘I’ve found it, what you needed, Albus.’ Moody nodded, pulling himself forward and throwing a heavy sack onto the table beside the locket and ring, ‘hidden in the darkest depths of Greece, that was.’ 

 

‘Thank you, Alastor,’ Dumbledore waved a hand and the sack gently untied itself, ‘this will shine a much brighter light on exactly what we’re looking for.’ 

 

Inside the sack was a weathered, mud-flecked, leather-bound book. It brought an ominous hush over the room. There were one or two scrolls accompanying it, but the book cover was adorned with a particularly lethal looking serpent. 

 

‘A book on snakes?’ Christian murmured. 

 

‘A memoir.’ Dumbledore corrected, ‘written by an ancient wizard named Herpo.’

 

‘The first known wizard to hatch a basilisk?’ Ali asked with an air of confusion.

 

‘The creator of the Horcrux.’ Regulus added with finality. 

 

A new silence fell over the room as all eyes fell on Regulus. Even their old headmaster seemed momentarily taken aback.

 

‘You have done your research then, Regulus.’ The smile Dumbledore offered the youngest Black was only half impressed, the other half riddled with unconcealed sadness. 

 

In an almost awkward motion, Ali slipped a hand into Regulus’s, a movement that was not lost on Sirius whose grey eyes locked onto the connection. Regulus also looked down at his interlaced fingers and then glanced at his brother before both looked away. The entire chain of events was lost on Ali who spoke next.

 

‘What do we do now, Professor?’ 

 

‘I must study these notes in detail,’ Dumbledore flicked his wrist and the sack of scrolls and the book averted everyone as it flew toward him and settled in his hand, ‘I think I have an idea of our next move but there are two things of which I must be certain.’

 

Christian moved forward and snatched up the ring, ‘please enlighten us, Albus.’ There was a tense moment shared between the men that wasn’t lost on most of the room, ‘what are these certainties you must make?’

 

Dumbledore gave him a smile and it was sincere, ‘I want to make sure of how to destroy them. And,’ a pause,‘I need to know how many there are.’

 

‘Do you think there are more?’ Remus choked out.

 

‘Unfortunately, I believe there to be more than just the two we have procured, yes.’ 

 

Regulus made a sound of pain that he stopped halfway through, turning into Ali’s shoulder as she tapped him on the back. Everyone stared for a moment until Harry’s tiny cry echoed feebly off the darkened walls.

 

‘Good morning, darling.’ Lily whispered kissing his angry little face. James lifted him high and quietly pressed kisses to any body part he could reach as the crying was subdued.

 

‘Can we help with the next part, Albus?’ Dedalus asked with a half-hearted expression.

 

‘I think we can, by putting these… things, under a rotating care. While you finish your studies, of course, Albus.’ Christian gave the headmaster a curt smile, ‘Can’t have you worrying about these, as well.’

 

‘That sounds like the right plan of action, Adams,’ Moody agreed, ‘I’ll draw up a schedule for us all to keep to.’

 

‘Yes, sir.’ James saluted with the hand he wasn’t using to rock Harry.

 

‘There is one last request I must make before we depart.’ Dumbledore’s voice was louder and drew everyone back, ‘and that is, those who are not present at today’s meeting must have no knowledge of what has transpired today.’ His blue eyes swept the room and landed where Ali and Regulus were still holding hands, ‘Not a word can be spoken to anyone outside of those before you.

 

‘Thanks to Mister Black’s selfless actions and invaluable information, we now have the upper hand in this battle. And if we play our cards right, we have a real chance at ending this war.’ 

 

‘You have our word, Albus.’ Gideon spoke for him and Fabian.

 

‘Mine, too.’ Remus nodded. 

 

‘And us.’ Lily smiled by James and Harry with a new hope.

 

‘You have all of our words, no doubt.’ Moody broke and stood up from the seat he had taken at the table as he prodded the locket. 

 

‘Thank you for offering your house up today, Moody.’

 

‘Not a problem, Adams. Should you take first shift with the ring, then?’

 

‘Shouldn’t be a problem.’ Christian looked down at the ring in his palm.

 

‘Don’t wear it. Under any circumstances.’ Moody eyed the little golden band, ‘I can sense the dark magic. You can be sure it will test you. But I’ve seen something similarly cursed, you put it on, and that’s the end of ya.’ The two men locked eyes and nodded.

 

‘I’ll take first charge of the locket.’ Moody offered, ‘and I’ll communicate the schedule in a safe way once I’ve constructed it. Potter’s, are you up to manning one at some point with the little one around.’ 

 

‘Of course.’ James replied.

 

‘They will not.’ Christian stepped in.

 

‘Agreed.’ Dumbledore nodded at Christian.

 

‘Hey!’ James raised his voice but Harry stirred and Lily stoked his arm as she whispered something to him over Harry’s whimpers. 

 

‘We can offer our help in other ways.’ Lily said loud enough for the others to hear once James accepted her whispered advice.

 

‘Of that I am sure,’ Dumbledore repositioned his hat and nodded a goodbye to everyone before disapparting out of the kitchen. 

 

‘He shouldn’t be able to do that.’ Moody shook his head, ‘I’ve put similar enchantments on this place that Hogwarts has.’

 

‘Doesn’t stop him apparating in and out of Hogwarts, does it.’ Fabian gave a small laugh.

 

After a chorus of goodbyes and exchanges of next meetings and patrols almost everyone, bar the Prewett twins, had left Moody’s awfully decorated, and frankly scary kitchen behind. James and Lily had to take Harry home to put him to bed properly. Remus told them he had gotten a job and had a shift to attend. Ali and Regulus were still side by side when they apparated back to the Adams home with Christian and Sirius not far behind. 

 

‘Are you all right?’ Ali asked of Regulus once they were safe inside the walls of the entrance hall.

 

‘I’m fine. I just need a lie-down, I think.’ Regulus gave her a kind smile, leaving her and making a move to the stairs as Sirius appeared in the entrance. 

 

Sirius moved in to take Regulus’s place and slipped his hand into Ali’s as she turned to look up at him.

 

‘I think he’s a little shocked. That there’s even more than two.’ Ali explained as she leaned in and rested against his chest.

 

Sirius’s mood lightened and he visibly relaxed, ‘makes sense.’ 

 

‘He was so upset when Dumbledore found the ring. Do you think he thought the locket was the only one? And he was giving his life up for a good cause? I think if I’d almost died and then found out it wouldn’t have made much of a difference, I’d be upset, too.’ Ali muttered as Sirius wrapped his arms around her. 

 

‘Merlin, you’re amazing.’ 

 

‘What do you mean?’ Ali asked, confused.

 

‘Where’s your father?’

 

‘Collecting Tucker from my grandparents, I expect.’

 

‘Good, come with me.’ Sirius tightened his embrace and apparated them into his flat. 

 

‘Is something wrong?’ Ali asked catching her footing.

 

‘No, I just needed to be alone with you.’ He concluded and pulled her back in, bending down to kiss her. It was easy enough for them to get caught up in the interaction. They had been together two and a half years now and sleeping together for more than half of that. Ali knew Sirius well enough to know this wasn’t just his “I need to be close to you” and it was laced with something else.

 

They kissed again and settled into the comfortable couch that Ali had helped him pick out a few months back.

 

‘Not that I’m complaining,’ Ali murmured as Sirius gently grabbed one of her breasts and started kissing a line down her throat. He moved his hand to unclasp her bra, something he’d always been far too good at, and easily slipped the straps of her dress down and tossed her bra aside. As his lips settled on one of her nipples and his tongue began flicking it back and forth her words faded away.

 

Ali began to melt into the couch and Sirius’s free hand trailed down her stomach and slipped under her underwear. As his fingers moved back and forth a few times, getting wet enough to send shivers down her body and groans of pleasure from her mouth she snapped and grabbed a hold of his face and pulled it up from her chest and looked him in the eye.

 

‘Not that I’m complaining, but are you doing this because I was keeping close to Regulus at the meeting?’ Her breathing was laboured, and his fingers were still positioned between her legs, even the slightest movement would have stopped her from caring.

 

He kept his eye contact, his heavy-lashed lids blinked just once before he answered.

 

‘No.’ He kissed her. He sat up properly and she was sad when his hand pulled out from between her. ‘I’m just in awe of you.’

 

‘What do you mean?’

 

‘I mean just that. I’m in awe of you.’

 

Ali snorted, not caring that she was sat topless, with her dress having been pushed down to her stomach in Sirius’s need to get to her chest.

 

‘Do you remember a few years ago, when I was trying desperately to teach you how to pass transfiguration.’

 

‘I remember you yelling at me a lot about not reading the textbook.’

 

‘I literally still have war flashbacks about this,’ he muttered more to himself, ‘I told you not to memorise it.’

 

‘Still doesn’t make any sense to me.’

 

‘Yes, Melin forbid you just let the magic flow for once.’ He rolled his eyes and kissed her, then arranged them so that Ali was laying back against the arm of the couch and he was beside her. His hand familiarly began brushing against the curve of her breasts without either of them paying it much attention.

 

‘What about that time?’

 

‘I was crazy about you back then. Everyone one knew but you. You just didn’t really understand peoples feelings or maybe at that point, you didn’t care.’

 

‘I cared-’

 

‘I don’t mean it like that.’ He kissed her forehead, ‘I mean, there were more important things. Like studying, reading, prefect duties.’

 

‘Oh,’ Ali paused, then nodded in agreement.

 

‘People weren’t your top priority,’ Sirius half shrugged, ‘even back when you went on that date and all the kids were tormenting you about that stupid scrawny kid, what's his name?’

 

‘Dirk Cresswell?’

 

‘Little git.’ Sirius snapped, ‘you ignored that gossip and just got on with it. I mean you had a bit of a cry about it after you slammed me into a pile of owl dung.’

 

‘What’s this all about?’ She smacked him across his still clothed chest.

 

He just raised his eyebrows at her suggestively then continued, ‘well you were a bit.. odd.’

 

‘Yeah, we’re all aware I’m not that great with people, Sirius.’

 

‘I said were.’

 

‘What?’

 

‘You were.’ Sirius smiled at her, leaned forward and kissed her gently. He removed his hand from her chest and brushed it along her chin as they continued to engage in the chaste exchange.

 

‘I’m not now?’ She asked once the kiss broke.

 

‘No.’ He ran his hand up and down her side in a rhythmic motion, ‘today you noticed my brothers emotions more than anyone else in that room. Did you realise that?’ 

 

Ali stopped to think about it, ‘I guess so.’

 

‘You realised he’d be upset and comforted him the simplest way you knew how.’ Another light kiss as his hand ran across her stomach, ‘you can read people better now, you care more about the feelings of others. You’re not perfect at it, but you’ve come a long way.’

 

Ali smiled, ’It’s because of you.’

 

‘What?’

 

‘You. You make it easier.’ Sirius quirked a brow at her, ‘Well you, and James and Remus and Peter and Lily. You all make it easier to understand what people are thinking.’

 

‘You used to be such a weirdo.’ Sirius laughed.

 

‘Hey.’

 

‘You still are, a little.’ Sirius admitted, ‘But, I like you that way.’ He whispered and pulled her in closer. 

 

Their kiss started off gentle and sweet. But then Sirius’s fingers made their way back under her cotton knickers and Ali’s hands grasped a respective tricep each as she craned her head back, over the arm of the couch, allowing him to work his magic. His lips laid kisses from one nipple to the other until she got tired of his teasing.

 

Ali maneuvered a hand to the top of his jeans and popped the button open and unzipped the fly. Sirius stopped what he was doing to allow her access as she expertly dipped her hand in and pulled out his half-erect dick. She used her finger to massage over the head, where there was enough pre-cum that it took just a few moments of her gentle massaging for Sirius to be completely hard. Once she had a firm enough grasp and was gliding up and down with enough force, Sirius jumped up, kicked the rest of his jeans off and descended on his girlfriend as she cried out with laughter. 

 

‘What's funny?’

 

‘You look ravenous.’

 

‘I am, you’re so beautiful, get this stupid dress off.’

 

‘It’s not stupid,’ Ali fought as he pulled it over her head and flung it off near the kitchen table. 

 

‘No, it’s perfectly acceptable when you’re in public. But anything on your body is stupid in this flat.’

 

Ali laughed again as Sirius lowered himself over her and kissed her on the lips. The escalation between them was slow enough that they both wanted the press of their bodies together. Sirius lifted Ali easily to move her into a better position. 

 

First he continued with his previous motions, moving his finger down between her legs. Ali relaxed in pleasure but was sure to reciprocate by grabbing a firm hold of his hard-on and moving up and down, the best she could, in the position she was in. 

 

But Sirius wasn’t done. He pulled his hand away, only to replace it was his mouth, and Ali lost all sense of where anything else in the room was as she verbally approved of the change. It had only been recently that Ali even allowed Sirius to do this. She used to swat him away and was still a little embarrassed about it. It was insane to her that he enjoyed using his tongue in this way and as it slipped up and down her clitoris she yelped in pleasure. Her hands grabbed a hold of his hair and her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to control herself.

 

Just as Sirius began to suck, he slipped one finger inside her and Ali couldn’t control her voice. She cried out and threw her head back. 

 

‘Glad we didn’t do this at your place,’ Sirius looked pleased with himself as he resurfaced.

 

‘Get up here now.’ Ali demanded as he obeyed and she swapped their positions, sitting him down as she stood before him, pulling off the t-shirt he was wearing and capturing herself staring at his chest. The way his beautiful, pink dick was resting against his abs was too much to bear. 

 

She straddled herself over him, as she had many times before, and reached down to position his dick in exactly the right place. She leaned in to kiss him as she slowly sat down, allowing every inch of him to push up inside of her. Sirius held his breath against her lips, quivering with every movement she took. 

 

She started off slow, back and forth, rocking her hips and his moans kept in sync with her movements. When she started to lift all the way off him and sit back down Sirius drew forward and began flicking his tongue over one of her nipples. This continued on for long enough that Sirius got distressed and flipped their positions back. After he eased back into her in his domineering position, he used his thumb to rub circular motions and get her off as he pulled in and out, pumping fast enough that within another fifteen minutes, they were both crying out before they lay spent and sweat covered on the couch. 

 

Their heavy breathing eventually slowed down and Ali looked down at where Sirius was sprawled across her.

 

‘Just needed to get me alone to chat, right?’

 

‘That, too.’ They both laughed and curled up into a more comfortable position to embrace for a while longer.

 

*

 

‘Where did you two get off to?’ Christian asked as Ali and Sirius apparated into the kitchen around dinner time.

 

‘Sirius needed help moving his furniture around.’ Ali shrugged, brushing a wet curl behind her ear, ‘has Regulus come down yet?’

 

‘Moving furniture.’ Christian looked at Sirius as he swept his hair back into a low ponytail, still wet from a shower. 

 

‘Yeah, finally getting a few more things and she demands it all be in the right spots.’ He shrugged. 

 

‘Sounds like my daughter.’ Christian let the obvious lie go. 

 

Ali and Sirius took seats at the table with Christian as Regulus entered the room.

 

‘Hey, how you feeling?’ Ali asked, seeing that the only chair was by Sirius and wondering how this was going to play out. 

 

She knew Sirius was thankful to her for prying into his brother's life. She knew he was thankful to her for managing to save him from almost certain death. Regulus was now in hiding at the Adams house for the time being, until they thought of a better arrangement. They had the room so there was no rush. 

 

The only awkward thing was that Sirius and Regulus weren’t comfortable around one another. They clearly cared about each other, in a weird way Ali couldn’t quite comprehend, but they didn’t speak much. They tended to avoid each other the best they could. Ali found herself constantly sandwiched between them as they both seemed comfortable beside her but as soon as she stood up or moved, they couldn’t get further away from each other. 

 

She figured it was just going to take a little time. Or that’s what she kept telling herself. She allowed the strange behaviour to continue, but it was pushing on six months since they saved Regulus and Ali was getting ready to shout at them for being ridiculous.

 

Then, to both the surprise of Christian and herself, Regulus looked at the spot beside Sirius, paused, then sat down and exhaled. 

 

‘Big day.’ Sirius said agreeing with Regulus’s sigh. 

 

‘Mhmm.’ Was all Regulus offered in reply, but it was progress. 

 

Ali watched Sirius as he gave the smallest of smiles towards his little brother before striking up a conversation with her father. Tucker took that moment to march inside, yelling about a ban on all breakfast food at dinner time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look it only took us 79 chapters and a site change to finally see some action between the main characters lol.
> 
> Guys I'm really sorry for the super slow updates. I think I was aiming too high. I wanted to basically write every part of this ending out but it would be about as long as the normal series if I did. So I'm going to stop focusing so much on the action scenes and small details and everything falling into place and every characters story getting told and write the final chapters about Ali and Sirius's relationship (and what happens to James and Lily of course), it's what I write this for. I will definitely give everything a well-deserved conclusion, just with maybe a little less detailed explanation on the Voldemort stuff. Hope that's okay!


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